If all goes well, a new Covid-19 testing laboratory will be set up here at the district hospital in Tumakuru next week.
Currently, throat swab and sputum samples are being sent for tests to the National Institute of Virology in Bengaluru. It takes the reports three days to come back. If a lab is set up in Tumakuru itself, the report can be had the same day the samples are taken.
The lab needs four technicians and a microbiologist. They have already been trained in Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru. A room next to the MRI scanning centre at the district hospital has been identified to set up the lab. Four rooms are needed.
There is a provision for the technicians to work in two shifts. As many as 96 samples can be tested in one shift; which means that 192 samples can be tested in a day. Two technicians will work per shift and they will not be allowed to do any other kind of work.
The lab needs 16 different kinds of equipment. Some of it will be imported from Bengaluru and the lab will begin to operate from next week, said District Surgeon Dr T A Veerabhadraiah.