Indore still not ‘self-sufficient’ to test its own samples

Indore: Even though Indore constitutes around 50% of state’s Covid-19 cases, it has to take help of other laboratories in and outside MP for testing of around 60% samples while other hotspots like Ujjain and Bhopal are now testing all samples in city labs.
MGM virology laboratory has been receiving 1700 to 2200 samples daily for last one week including 70% samples from city.Of those samples received by medical college, only 850 samples were tested in a day including 150 in a private laboratory in city.
Dean Dr Jyoti Bindal said that they had been maintaining zero pendency with the help of labs in and outside the state. She confirmed that the virology laboratory had been testing around 700 samples a day.
Bindal added, “The installation of two bio-safety cabinet machines is going on. This will smoothen testing in lab and also help in increasing the capacity to 1000 daily.”
Medical college also has the burden of testing samples of other districts. But, because of less capacity in its lab as compared to demand along with less number of laboratories in the city, is posing problem to test all samples.
According to a list of ICMR about functioning labs in country, MP has only 18 labs including 12 in government facilities. Of those, one-third is in state capital Bhopal including four in public facilities.
Indore has four labs including three private ones. But, two of them have got permission only couple of days back and are testing very less samples.
Sampurna Sodani lab is waiting for permission from state government to begin testing samples received by medical college. “At present, the lab is testing around 10 samples only. But, it has testing capacity of 50 per day,” said Dr Sadhna Sodani, owner of lab.
The other one at SAIMS began functioning two days back and is testing around 40 samples a day. The capacity will go up to 80 samples but as SAIMS is red-cum-yellow hospital, it already has its share of load. So, it can’t test samples from medical college for now, said Dr Rajeev Singh, official spokesperson of institute.