A machine to test Covid-19 swab samples has been lying unused for almost a month at the Tamluk district hospital of East Midnapore.

Reason: there are no installation technicians and biologists to operate the machine costing nearly Rs 1 crore.

The real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machine, which is imported, is used for “rapid testing” of Covid-19 samples. People can get their test results within two hours.

The fact that the machine lying unused at a time Covid-19 cases in East Midnapore are rising every day has raised a number of eyebrows.

On Tuesday, 137 new Covid-19 cases were recorded in East Midnapore, a steep rise from an average of 60 new cases a day last week.

A district health official said that getting the machine up and running now was of “paramount importance”, but it needed “21 scientists and technicians” to run it.

East Midnapore chief medical officer Nitai Mondal said the installation procedure for the machine was “a little complex”. “No compromises can be made on that aspect. We are awaiting a proper recruitment by state authorities. Once done, testing in Tamluk could be ramped up to 1,500 a day.”

The need to ramp up Covid tests is being felt keenly every day.

Sources said the district currently sent all swab samples to the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Calcutta. But here too, a new hurdle came up this week when RG Kar hospital set its daily sample limit for East Midnapore at 950, throwing a spanner in the effort to undertake widespread testing in the district.

A Tamluk district hospital source said getting test results from Calcutta at least three-four days, depending on the volume of swab samples sent. This delay becomes a health hazard for patients who need immediate prognosis and treatment.

“We have with us several sick people in the isolation wards whose treatment can’t be definitively started before test results. Several persons have died in the process,” said hospital superintendent Gopal Das. “We need the assistance with this new machine right away.”

A case in point is Goutam Hait, 62, a grocer from Tamluk, who spent the last 10 days waiting for his test results from Calcutta. Hait, who is also a heart patient, said: “Officials say they are helpless, but so am I.”