Tumakuru labs upgraded to fight coronavirus

TUMAKURU: The Covid-19 situation seems to have helped in upgrading the laboratory facilities at government hospitals as 35 of them set up recently including the one in Tumakuru have started operation. After two days of successful trials, an ICMR approval has been sought to run the Covid-19 RT-PCR (Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) laboratory.

The new facility implemented at an estimated cost of `64 lakh was inaugurated on Friday. “It will help in speedy disposal of the cases and also the decision-making process will become fast,” said district minister J C Madhuswamy. Apart from Covid-19, the lab can also test samples H1N1, dengue, chikungunya and other virus. “We used to send the samples to laboratories in Bengaluru or Hassan.

Now, at one go and in three shifts, 288 samples could be tested. Results of each batch of 96 samples will be out in six hours,” informed district surgeon Dr T A Veerabhadraiah. Microbiologist Dr Rukmini, lab technicians Suresh and Umesh underwent training. If results are out fast, it will speed up the discharge of the suspected patients if their samples test negative from the quarantine centres. Also, patients in the isolation could get repeated tests done at the earliest and be discharged when the samples turn negative repeatedly.