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Covid-19: State's private labs yet to take testing load

Two private laboratories in Bengaluru which received approvals from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to test for Covid-19 infections two weeks ago have cumulatively tested only 231 samples so far, possibly due to stringent government guidelines. While Cancyte Technologies has tested only two samples, Neuberg Anand Diagnostic Laboratory has tested 229 samples so far.


“Unlike other states, the Karnataka government has put a long process in place that requires the physician to upload all case-related information, including symptoms, on the government-run website. It is only after the surveillance officer’s approval that the physician can refer the patient to the laboratory for testing. The process is time-consuming,” said Dr K N Sridhar, founder and managing director of Cancyte Technologies, which has kits that can test about 700 patients.

According to a senior health department official, one reason why Neuberg Anand has tested more samples is because the government is distributing some of the sample loads from hospitals and fever clinics to it after the laboratory agreed to do the tests free of cost. Neuberg Anand did not respond to requests seeking comment.

Stringent norms are important, health department sources said, to ensure that kits are not wasted on patients who do not show actual symptoms. Dr CN Manjunath, the state’s nodal officer for testing procedures, said: “As of now, the government labs can carry the load. In case there is a rise in the number of cases and demand for testing, even private labs will get more samples.”

“Surveillance officers do not reject any test requests that fall within the state’s Covid-19 lab testing guidelines,” he added. Government hospitals and fever clinics (the first point of contact for people with symptoms) usually send throat swab samples to government-run laboratories. There are 11 functioning government labs in the state, of which five are in Bengaluru. The state had tested 6,580 samples as of Tuesday.

On March 31, the state health department allowed the two private testing labs to also act as fever clinics. However, the private labs said they have insufficient staff and infrastructure to run the fever clinics.

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