Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals has been allowed to conduct the novel coronavirus test, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Thursday.
Officials of the Bypass hospital, the first private health-care facility in Bengal to get the nod, said they were yet to get the kits for the test. They were not sure whether the test could begin before next week.
Till Thursday, only two facilities in Bengal — both located in Calcutta — had the approval to conduct the Covid-19 test. They are the Bengal government-run Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (SSKM Hospital) and the central government-run National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (Niced) in Beleghata.
As public health experts fear a rise in the number of positive cases, there is a dire need to increase the number of facilities conducting the tests, said a doctor.
“We were granted permission by the ICMR to conduct the novel coronavirus RT-PCR test on Wednesday evening. We have ordered kits from Mylabs Science the same evening. We will start doing tests within 24 hours of receiving the kits,” said an official of Apollo Gleneagles Hospital Limited.
“We are expecting tests to begin next week provided the courier service is functional,” said the official.
The hospital, he said, has asked for 800 kits in the first batch. “The hospital has a quarantine facility with 14 beds and can ramp up the capacity quickly if the situation demands,” the official said.
The ICMR has revised its testing guidelines and included high-risk asymptomatic contacts of people testing positive for Covid-19 among those who must be tested for the virus.
