Auriga Research upgrades Covid testing at Bengaluru airport

Bengaluru: Auriga Research Private Limited, the largest NABL accredited testing lab in India, has upgraded its team strength to 250+ members to support 24x7x365 Covid testing at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru.

Operating throughout the pandemic, Auriga has, till date, facilitated hundreds of thousands of tests for both arrivals and departures, at the airport. The Rapid-PCR test method using the globally acclaimed Abbott ID delivers results in less than 15 minutes with 95% accuracy and is priced at Rs 3,000. Auriga also offers gold standard PerkinElmer High Throughput RT-PCR tests that deliver results in 5-6 hours, at Rs 500, and Rapid Antigen tests that deliver results in 40 minutes, at Rs 400, in compliance with the pricing by the government of Karnataka.

Early in the pandemic, Auriga set up its real-time PCR lab at the airport with an investment of more than Rs 2 crore and was the first to offer Abbott ID Now facilities. After the resumption of flights, the situation worsened, and Auriga made a further investment of Rs 50 lakh to add multiple PCR machines and extractors, including increasing staff strength to manage the footfall smoothly, in a time-bound manner.

With the rise of the Omicron variant, it became necessary for arriving passengers from at-risk countries to be tested and cleared rapidly. So, when the number of passengers spiked, causing severe chaos at the airport, Auriga invested more than Rs 1 crore to install 50 new Abbot Rapid testing machines in just 36 hours. Auriga is carrying out the covid-19 tests as per technically validated methods and regulatory guidelines.

Saurabh Arora, Managing Director, Auriga Research Private Limited, says, "Our team takes tremendous pride in the services we are providing the passengers at KIA and thank the BIAL team and GOK for their support throughout the pandemic. I thank all my team members who have gone above and beyond to maintain the service level despite the health risks and tremendous pressure on them."

Mandatory testing for arrivals as per Government guidelines is being carried out at the Auriga Testing counter inside the terminal prior to immigration and just before exit gate number 12. Passengers departing from Bangalore can also avail Covid tests on their own from the Auriga Testing counter outside the departure terminal, just before gate number 1.

While there are dedicated testing booths set up at the airport, passengers can also pre-register their swab tests using https://aurigaresearch.in, to avoid delays upon arrival. Once the reports are ready, they are shared digitally with those tested, and the results uploaded and registered on the ICMR website, as per Government guidelines.