On Tuesday, India said it had initiated talks with 51 accredited private laboratories in a bid to widen the diagnosis protocol for tackling coronavirus in the country.
“We are in the process of engaging private NABL [National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories] accredited laboratories for carrying out testing of Covid-19 cases,” director-general of the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) Balram Bhargava said during a press conference yesterday.
“We appeal to all private laboratories to offer Covid-19 diagnosis free of cost,” he added.
The ICMR on Tuesday issued a release ‘Strategy of Covid-19 testing in India’ and laid down guidelines for private sector laboratories that intend to initiate Covid-19 testing.
– As per the guidelines, lab testing should only be offered when prescribed by a qualified physician as per ICMR guidance. The latest revised version of the guidelines must be followed.
– Standard operation Protocol (SOPs) will be shared by the ICMR as soon as the concerned private lab procures the primers, probes and reagents
– Adoption of commercial kits for testing should be based on validations conducted by lCMR-National Institute of Virology (NlV): Pune.
– Appropriate “biosafety and biosecurity” precautions should be ensured during sample collection. Alternatively, the ICMR suggests the creation of a “disease-specific separate collection site”.
– Private labs must ensure immediate/real-time reporting of initiation of contact tracing and other research activities to the state government and other authorities.
– Private labs are urged to offer Covid-19 diagnosis at no cost
