Health
The 183 labs in India that can test COVID-19 cases
Labs remain sparse in worst-hit states
By DTE Staff
Published: Tuesday 31 March 2020
Close to two months after the first novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was recorded, India has just 183 labs that are equipped to carry out the tests. Of these, 132 are government labs (126 are receiving testing kits from Indian Council of Medical Research and 6 are without ICMR support) and 51 are private labs.
A closer look at the three states with most COVID-19 cases tells a worrying story. Kerala, which has reported 202 cases so far, has 12 labs with covid-19 testing capabilities.
Maharashtra, which is a close second at 198 reported cases, has 23 certified labs so far. Delhi, with 87 cases, has 14 certified labs. Karnataka (83 cases) and Uttar Pradesh (82 cases) has 11 and 9 certified labs. Ladakh, which has reported 13 cases so far, only has a single sample collection centre. Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim also only have collection centres.
ICMR, the nodal authority for testing of patients for COVID-19, has also identified seven institutes to serve as depot for storage of reagents required for COVID-19 testing. The institutes are: National Institute of Cholera & Enteric Diseases, Kolkata; ICMR -Regional Medical Research Centre, Dibrugarh; National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai; National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad; National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai; National Institute of Malaria Research, Delhi and National Institute for Research on Environmental Health, Bhopal.
The council has been closely monitoring the presence of community transmissions in the country. Since February 15, ICMR has initiated sentinel surveillance to detect community transmission of COVID-19. The surveillance sites have been scaled up from 16 sites till Feb 29, 2020 to 51 sites by March 15, 2020.
India is currently testing only:
- All symptomatic individuals who have undertaken international travel in the last 14 days
- All symptomatic contacts of laboratory confirmed cases
- All symptomatic healthcare workers
- All hospitalised patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (fever and cough and/or shortness of breath)
- Asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case should be tested once between day 5 and day14of coming in his/her contact.
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India Environment Portal Resources :
- Timely diagnosis and treatment shortens the time to resolution of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pneumonia and lowers the highest and last CT scores from sequential chest CT
- Clinical characteristics of 113 deceased patients with coronavirus disease 2019: retrospective study
- Epidemiology of Covid-19 in a long-term care facility in King County, Washington
- SARS-CoV-2 and Coronavirus disease 2019: What we know so far
- Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study
- Guidance for Covid-19 prevention and control In schools
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