The testing of samples for COVID-19 would start at Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) from Saturday. On Friday the microbiology lab of the medical college was given formal approval by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to start testing for COVID-19. The Principal of the GDMC, Dr Ashutosh Sayana said that the speed of testing of the samples in the state would increase with the GDMC lab becoming operational for COVID-19 tests. He said that the lab is ready and the training to the staff has been given for testing of swab samples of suspected patients. The Principal said that the college would receive the test kits by Friday evening. He added that six microbiologists of GDMC would conduct the tests.
After start of COVID-19 tests at GDMC, the state would have three centres of test of samples for the disease in government sector. A private lab ( Aahuja lab) in Dehradun has also been authorised to conduct COVID-19 tests.
At present the testing facilities of COVID-19 are available only at the laboratory of department of microbiology of Government Medical College, Haldwani and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Rishikesh. Till last month Lab of Haldwani was the only facility in the state for COVID-19. On March 31, the AIIMS Rishikesh also started doing the tests.
The confirmatory test of the COVID-19 involves detection of Ribo Nucleic Acid (RNA) of the virus by the Real Time (RT) -PCR method.