CSIR-IMTECH Takes Up Sample Testing For COVID-19

    IMTECH gears up for sample testing for COVID-19

Numerous challenges are brought up to the healthcare department due to COVID-19. One such challenge is the minimal number of testing kits of COVID-19. Currently, India has been mainly testing people with a traveling history. But the rate of screening should enhance in terms of screening per million populace.

The CSIR-IMTECH (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Institute of Microbial Technology) gears up to start the sample testing for COVID-19 to improve the screening of COVID-19 positive cases. This is in accord with the instructions issued by the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India as well as the advisory provided by the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) to operationalize COVID-19 testing by research laboratories under CSIR and various other labs associated to DBT (Department of Biotechnology), DAE (Department of Atomic Energy), and DST (Department of Science and Technology).

Dr. Sanjeev Khosla, Director, IMTECH, Chandigarh stated, “The effort of ICMR to involve all government-accredited laboratories is a welcome step and also will certainly be a turning point in the testing of COVID-19 samples. This initiative would enhance the testing rate of COVID-19. The organization plans to operationalize capabilities

to perform screening of 50-100 samples per day as an initial stage, which can be increased consequently when needed.

The organization has all the required expertise in molecular microbiology and has enhanced its capacities to accomplish clinical testing for COVID-19. As all the labs are advised to take all proper biosafety and bio-security preventative measures before testing, the IMTECH  laboratory has all the requisite infrastructure consisting of the Biosafety level-3 facility. A recently built Biosafety level-2+ virology laboratory outfitted with RT-PCR has also been developed. To operationalize the testing as soon as possible, all the obligatory approvals required for testing clinical samples of COVID-19 have been obtained.

To prevent health care professionals from getting infected while serving the patients, the CSIR-IMTECH is providing Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), apart from testing of samples. The institute is likewise expanding assistance to the local administration and Red Cross of Chandigarh by providing the infrastructure as well as logistical backing.

Author: Sruthi S