JOIN USRequest for approval for COVID-19 test centre at Belagavi stuck with NABL
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has invited applications from all government and private medical colleges for establishing a Covid-19 testing facility. JN Medical College, Belagavi, which is the only medical college that applied from Karnataka needs to submit NABL accreditation for testing respiratory viruses. Nut it is stuck with its inability to reach National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) due to the lockdown.
The north-west districts of the state hardly have any testing facilities for Covid-19. Belagavi has 10 confirmed cases. So far, 16 testing facilities in Karnataka, public and private, have been given permission for Covid-19 testing, with a majority in Bengaluru. Getting approval requires staff to get training in molecular diagnosis, apart from biosafety cabinets, real-time PCR machines, consumables and equipment.
"Not just a plain NABL accreditation, the lab has to be NABL-approved for PCR on respiratory viruses. Only then they will consider it. Also, the state government should request" said Dr V Ravi, HoD, virology, Nimhans. Ravi has been testing Covid-19 samples since April 5.
In areas with no operational Covid-19 testing facility, a new one will be considered if certain conditions of ICMR are met. The number of suspected cases in that particular district should be more than 100 per day. For Belagavi, the nearest testing laboratory is 300 km (five hours) away.
Many conditions
Dr M V Jaali, Medical Director, Dr Prabhakar Kore Hospital attached to JN Medical College, said, "NABL officials are not receiving our calls. The NABL officials said we can get the accreditation online. Then they said they will see the machine through video conferencing."
"Later, a clause was added that unless we test for a respiratory infection like H1N1 with the machine, we cannot get the approval. We've got the kit from the local market, the RT-PCR machine is lying with us for 10 days. We've exhausted all efforts to get NABL to talk to us," he said. The nearest Covid-19 testing facility to Belagavi is Shivamogga, 300 km away, Jaali added.