Kolhapur district to have two Covid-19 testing labs

Piyush Bhusari | TNN | Updated: Apr 23, 2020, 08:46 IST

Image used for representative purpose

KOLHAPUR: Kolhapur district will soon have two fully functional Covid-19 testing laboratories — one at Chhatrapati Pramila Raje (CPR) the civil hospital and the other at the Government Medical College’s Shenda Park premises.
Kolhapur guardiand minister Satej Patil told TOI that the work related to the establishment of the labs is in progress while funding has been provided through the district planning committee.
The minister said 200 testing kits have been received from the state, which are provided by the Centre, and that around 5,000 more such kits are required.
According to Patil, the labs will help in early detection of cases and provide extra time to the administration to execute decisions related to Covid cases.
Kolhapur district collector Daulat Desai said the lab work at the CPR hospital has been completed and the second lab will be ready by April 26. “We are waiting for approval for the first lab from the ICMR, which is likely to be received by Wednesday evening.”
Desai clarified that both the labs will be available for testing swab samples from Kolhapur district only.
The Kolhapur health department used to send swab samples to the National Institute of Virology, Pune. However, a testing lab was set up in Miraj and the samples are being sent to this facility, which has a low capacity, resulting in the delay in the results.
According to the health department data, of the 1,269 swab samples, 1,060 tested negative, while 10 were Covid-19 positive till April 22. A total of 169 reports are pending while 40 samples were rejected.
Kolhapur has recorded 10 Covid-19 cases till date, of which two patients have recovered and discharged while few more are on the way to recovery. At present, the number of active cases stands at eight.