The ICMR-Vector Control Research Centre (VCRC) has set up a COVID-19 diagnostic laboratory to help the Government effort to build testing capacity for the viral infection in the region.
The lab with equipment including centrifuge and vortex for RTC-PCR testing has been established as bio safety level 3 (BSL-3) facility to be managed by a set of technicians trained at Jipmer.
”The laboratory was set up on a request from the government. A successful trial run has been completed and the lab should be up and running in a few days,” said Ashwani Kumar, VCRC Director.
”Our primary catchment would be samples from testing centres at Jipmer and IGMCRI. We also aim to cater to demand for tests in neighbouring regions of Villupuram and Cuddalore,” Dr. Ashwani Kumar said.
The lab set up on an estimated cost of about ₹ 30 lakh will launch with a capacity to undertake 100 RT-PCR tests a day and scale up to double that volume per day. The results would be made available within 24 hours.
For the VCRC, the facility will serve as a diagnostic platform for other pathogens in a post-pandemic scenario.
This comes even as the government has been focused on building testing capacity amid a sustained increase in new COVID-19 cases in Puducherry and the enclaves of Karaikal and Yanam.
Reiterating the administration’s test, track and treat strategy, Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy said that the plan was to double the RT-PCR tests for COVID-19 from the current level of about 1,000 samples a day. Testing volumes are being stepped up in rural Puducherry as well as the enclaves of Karaikal, Yanam and Mahe.
Puducherry already had the highest COVID testing rate per lakh of the population in the country, having tested over 50,000 samples out of an estimated population of over 14 lakh — representing a 12% coverage. As part of capacity building move, private hospitals have also been asked to set up testing facilities for 100-200 samples a day, the Chief Minister said.