Kidwai hospital set to test 3k Covid samples per day

Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology (KMIO) had ordered a German technology machine called High Five for its molecular Oncology Department much before the Covid-19 pandemic started and it will now come in handy to ramp up testing of the dreaded disease.

KMIO director Dr C Ramchandra said, "The German technology machine also uses the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique that is being used for testing Covid-19 samples. Previously, we would mount 374 samples at a time and would run it two to three times a day. So, we could run about 600-1,000 samples. Now, we can mount 700 samples at a time and can add 1,500-2,000 samples to our current testing capacity."

The institute paid Rs 70 lakh for the machine. "We decided to help people tide over this crisis. So, instead of using it only for Molecular Oncology for just three months, we will use it for Covid-19 testing. This will help in speeding up testing and easing the backlog of samples," Dr Ramchandra said.