Krishna district gets new lab, capacity up by 50 tests a day

Vijayawada: One more testing lab for testing the coronavirus cases has been allotted to Krishna district in addition to the existing one lab, said district collector A Md Imtiaz.

Addressing the Covid-19 district task force meeting at his camp office here on Saturday, the collector said that the necessary equipment for the second lab reached the government general hospital and it would come into operation by Sunday.

It may be recalled that there was only one lab with the testing capacity of 200 samples per day. The lab used to get samples from Guntur, West Godavari and Prakasam districts also in addition to the Krishna district. However, the lab is now getting samples from West Godavari district only.

With the setting up of additional testing lab, the capacity to test the samples would go up to 250 per day.

The collector told the medical officers that the Central government suggested observation of SARI cases in the society to ascertain spread of Covid-19 cases.

Government general hospital superintendent Dr Nancharaiah and DM&HO Dr Ramesh informed the meeting that the Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) patients would never remain isolated and they would come to hospital. They said that the tests are being conducted to them also as suspected Covid-19 cases.

The medical officers said that the rapid testing kits would arrive on Sunday and once they are available, 1,000 tests could be done a day at the houses. They said the coronavirus tests are streamlined and all the samples would be registered at the government hospital before sending to the lab.

The collector instructed the municipal commissioners and the district revenue officer to make sure that plenty of hypochlorite is available in all the municipalities and panchayats.