In the ongoing battle to prevent the community level outbreak of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Uttarakhand and detection of more and more suspected patients of the disease, presence of only two testing facilities in the State is acting as an impediment for the authorities. This hurdle is being observed in the manner in which the samples of the suspected patients are getting piled up at the two testing laboratories. The data of the health department shows that on April 5, reports of 89 samples were awaited which jumped to 144 and 166 on April 6 and 7 respectively.
On April 8, the result awaited list further increased to 221 and it became 261 on April 9. On Friday till 5 pm, the results of 333 samples were awaited. In the state, 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.
It is learnt that the health department is facing shortage of the RNA Polymerse Chain Reaction (PCR) kits to conduct the tests which manifested in tests of only 46 samples on Thursday in the state. When contacted, the additional secretary, Medical health and family welfare department, Yugal Kishore Pant claimed that test kits are available and both the labs are doing COVID-19 tests round the clock.
He added that the department is trying to open two new facilities at the Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP), Dehradun and Government Doon Medical College (GDMC), Dehradun soon. “We are trying to ensure that the facility to test COVID-19 samples is installed at the laboratory of the GDMC till April 15.
At present round the clock testing of samples is going on at AIIMS, Rishikesh and Medical College Haldwani,’’ he said.
It is worth mentioning here that in the confirmatory test of the COVID-19 involves detection of Ribo Nucleic Acid (RNA) of the virus by the PCR method.
In one kit which is commercially manufactured by some companies, 96 to 100 tests of swab samples of suspected patients can be conducted.