As India grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday, June 18, launched India’s first mobile laboratory for COVID-19 testing in rural and inaccessible areas of India.
The mobile laboratory, also called I-Lab or Infectious Diseases Diagnostics Lab, can run 50 RT-PCR and nearly 200 ELISA tests in a day. With a double set of machines, the capacity can go up to 500 tests per day in an eight-hour shift, Vardhan said.
‘Launched India’s first mobile lab for #COVID19 testing to promote last-mile testing access in rural & inaccessible areas of India. Present with me on the occasion was Smt @RenuSwarup Ji, Secretary, @DBTIndia,’ Vardhan tweeted.
It can be deployed in remote areas and can be lifted from Automotive Chassis and can be put on goods train for sending to any location in the country. The BSL -2 Lab is as per @NABL_QCI specification and is being attached to @DBTIndia’s certified Testing centres. @IndiaDST pic.twitter.com/4xpv1NQ1fb
— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) June 18, 2020
To address shortage of critical healthcare technologies in the country and move progressively towards a stage of self-sufficiency, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) under the Ministry of Science and Technology, along with the Andhra Pradesh Med-tech Zone (AMTZ), has initiated the DBT-AMTZ COMManD (COVID-19 Medtech Manufacturing Development) consortia.
AMTZ is Asia’s first medical equipment manufacturing ecosystem, uniquely dedicated to medical technology and supported by various ministries.
‘Under this Consortia, India’s first I- lab (infectious disease diagnostic lab) has been built at AMTZ in record time of 8 days. This is a mobile diagnostic unit with biosafety facility. The I- lab is a BSL-2 facility with on-site ELISA, RT-PCR, Biochemistry analyses,’ Vardhan said.
Under this Consortia, India’s first I- lab (infectious disease diagnostic lab) has been built at AMTZ in record time of 8 days. This is a mobile diagnostic unit with biosafety facility. The I- lab is a BSL-2 facility with on-site ELISA, RT-PCR, Biochemistry analyses.@DBTIndia pic.twitter.com/v3UPbyC9qO
— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) June 18, 2020
The Health Minister added that the mobile testing facility will be deployed through the DBT testing hubs to remote regions of the country for COVID-19 testing. Currently, there are over 20 such hubs in the country with 100 testing laboratories. Till date, these facilities have tested more than 2,60,000 samples for COVID-19.
‘We had started the fight against COVID with one laboratory in February. Today, we have 953 laboratories across the country. Out of these 953, around 699 are government labs,’ Vardhan said.
Also Read: PM Modi To Launch Rs 50,000 Crore Scheme To Provide Jobs To Returnee Migrants
