The Tata Medical Center in New Town on Friday received the ICMR’s approval to conduct Covid-19 tests. It is the fifth such hospital in the city and the second private centre to get the permission.

An official of the hospital, however, said on Saturday it would take at least a week to start the tests. The hospital has applied for kits but they are yet to arrive, the official said. Once the hospital is ready, it would announce the date and other necessary information on its website, he said.

The official said the hospital would focus more on conducting tests on cancer patients as they “would be more vulnerable”, but it would not be exclusively meant for them. “Cancer patients would be more vulnerable to Covid-19 infection. We want to ensure their tests are not delayed. But we will conduct tests on others, too.”

Samples sent by other hospitals will be tested as well. The finer details of which hospitals can send their samples will be worked out in consultation with the health department, the official said.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the country’s apex biomedical research body, announced the name of the New Town hospital on Saturday.

Five hospitals in the city have received the nod to conduct tests, but only two — the state government-run SSKM and the Centre-run National Institute for Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) — have been tests till Saturday. The School of Tropical Medicine, the other state government-run hospital which has been permitted to do the tests, will start doing so from Monday, an official of the hospital said. The official said kits had reached the hospital and the available infrastructure would allow them to test 20 samples every day.

Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, the other private hospital that has received the ICMR’s nod to do tests, is still to receive kits and are unlikely to start tests soon.

A health department official said it was necessary to allow more hospitals to conduct the tests to reduce the burden on the few centres currently doing the tests.

A few more private hospitals and laboratories have applied for the ICMR’s permission to conduct the tests. They are still to get the approval.

A National Task Force set up by the health ministry has recommended the charges for Covid-19 tests should not exceed Rs 4,500. This may include Rs 1,500 for a screening in case of suspected patients and an additional Rs 3,000 for a confirmatory test, according to ICMR guidelines for private hospitals issued on March 21. The tests can be conducted only “when prescribed by a qualified physician according to ICMR guidelines”, the notice said.