Odisha: 16 district headquarters to get RT-PCR testing labs

The Odisha government said on Tuesday that it would set up RT-PCR laboratories for COVID-19 in 16 district headquarters to ensure early testing of patients.

The new laboratories will come up in Bhadrak, Boudh, Bargarh, Dhenkanal, Gajapati, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Kandhamal, Kendrapara, Khurda, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Rayagada, Sonepur and Sundergarh, as per a notification issued by the Health and Family Welfare Department.

The approximate cost for setting up each laboratory is Rs 1.20 crore.

The Health Department has approved the recruitment of staff, including one microbiologist and three lab technicians for each shift that will be eight hours long.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has sanctioned Rs 20 crore for setting up the labs.

This move will not only enhance the daily testing rate but also reduce the time period required for testing, officials said.

Due to the lack of the sufficient number of RT-PCR testing labs, the samples now collected from various parts of the state are being transported long distances, delaying the results, they said.

On May 10, Odisha tested 46,241 samples for COVID-19 and only 16,717 of them were tested through the RT-PCR method.

At present, the state has 20 RT-PCR laboratories. Of these, 13 are government-run facilities and seven are run by private organisations.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)