Vimsar to scale up testing
Sambalpur: The state government is planning to scale up the Covid-19 testing capacity of the laboratory at the Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (Vimsar), Burla, to 1,000 tests per day. One new recombinant technology polymerase chain reaction (rt PCR) test machine besides five truenat machines will be installed at Vimsar for this purpose shortly.
At present, one rt PCR test machine with a capacity to test 100 swab samples per day has been there at the Covid-19 testing laboratory at the hospital.
Nodal officer of the Covid laboratory, Vimsar, Benudhar Pandey said, “The installation of the new machines will enable us to conduct test of 1000 swab samples per day. The government has already asked us to develop the required infrastructure and make the manpower ready for conducting 1,000 tests daily.”
Pandey said 37 persons have been involved for testing at the laboratory now. There are 30 experts from microbiology department of Vimsar, five experts from biotechnology department of Sambalpur University and two from the biotechnology department of Gangadhar Meher University (GMU) of Sambalpur.