Punjab Government has launched a pooled procedure for the investigation of suspected Covid-19 patients in the State’s Viral Research Diagnostic Lab (VRDL) at Government Medical College in Patiala and Amritsar.
“The results are very promising and no evidence of false results has been found during tests at Viral Research Diagnostic Labs (VRDL) of the states,” said the State Medical Education and Research Minister Om Prakash Soni on Wednesday adding that the technique is expected to increase Covid-19 testing capacity four folds.
Feasibility study of this technique has already been conducted and it is an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recommended technique, said Soni.
Soni said that the pooled testing algorithm involves the PCR screening of a specimen pool comprising multiple individual patient specimens, followed by individual testing (pool de-convolution) only if a pool screens positive. While all individual samples in a negative pool, are regarded as negative. This technique increases the capacity of the laboratories to screen increased numbers of samples and also results in substantial cost savings when a large proportion of pools tests negative, he said. He said that pooled testing detects viral RNA in samples very accurately and helps maximize existing resources. It can really save costs while enhancing the capacity enormously, he added.
Researchers from Germany and Israel have already validated this method and ICMR had issued the advisory in this regard on April 13. The labs in Punjab had immediately taken up this challenge and have delivered the results, thereby saving not only on costs but also on the test kits which are in limited supply the world over.