Maharashtra can test 6,000 samples a day; capacity to go up by 2,000

As the number of cases continues to rise, the Medical Education and Drugs Department (MEDD) has increased the daily testing capacity of the state to 6,000, the highest

As the number of cases continues to rise, the Medical Education and Drugs Department (MEDD) has increased the daily testing capacity of the state to 6,000, the highest in the country. The state plans to increase its capacity by 2,520 more, once eight medical colleges and 13 universities get a nod from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

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The first case of Covid-19 was reported in Maharashtra on March 9. Then, the state had only one testing facility – National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune, which was conducting 25 tests a day. Anticipating a further rise in the number of cases, the state health department soon started testing facilities in seven government- and civic-run medical institutes. By the end of March, the number of asymptomatic patients saw a jump of 65%, after which the health experts raised the need to run more tests to break the chain of infection. The state had tied up with four private labs –Thyrocare, Suburban Diagnostics, Metropolis Healthcare Limited and Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre. But recently, with the approval of ICMR, 11 more private labs were added to the list. “Currently, all government labs [there are more than four labs in the state now] together have a testing capacity of 2,500 daily. With the addition of 3,500 tests at 15 [earlier 4+newly added 11] private laboratories, the number has increased to 6,000,” said Sanjay Mukherjee, secretary of MEDD. “This is the highest testing capacity that any state in India has,” he said.

Till Saturday, 35,668 tests were conducted across the state, of which, 21,115 were carried out in government laboratories and 14,553 in private laboratories. The data released by ICMR shows that Maharashtra’s testing capacity is followed by Telangana where 10 private labs have got approval, followed by Tamil Nadu with 9. “Eight medical colleges and 13 universities have applied to ICMR to allow them to run tests for Covid-19. Each of these centres can run 120 tests a day in three shifts,” he said.

The waiting period for permission, too, may become shorter as the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Nagpur has become an approving agency. So all scrutiny for validation will be either done by NIV or AIIMS, Nagpur. Medical experts have often criticised the approval process of ICMR as slow. Mukherjee said, “Sars-Cov-2 is extremely infectious and is a BSL-2 (biosafety level-2) agent, which needs to be handled in a biosafety cabinet using standard precautions. The apex body needs to be stringent about the requirements for safety of others.”

With growing cases of asymptomatic patients, the state health department has also changed the standard operating procedure (SOP) to test people. Earlier, people either with travel history or those who have come in a close contact with any infected person were tested. “Now, in addition to people with risk factors, patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) are also being tested,” he added.

Meanwhile, taking note of the outbreak of viruses, ICMR along with Indian Medical Council (IMC) has instructed all medical colleges, both private and government-run, to run viral-diagnosis labs for training.

“It is a good move which will keep the logistics ready in time for a crisis like this and also give experience to students,” said Dr Ramesh Bharmal, director of major hospitals