Maha: Samples from Osmanabad sent to Beed for COVID-19 testing

A COVID-19 lab, with a testing capacity of 1,000 samples a day, is being set up in Osmanabad using corporate funds and no money has been spent from the funds provided by the state government, she said. Speaking about the issue, BJP MLC Surjeet Singh Thakur alleged that the time taken to raise funds had led to a delay in setting up the lab and prevented early detection of COVID- 19 cases in the district.

As the COVID-19 testing facility in Osmanabad is still being readied, swab samples from the region are now sent to a lab at Ambejogai in Beed district temporarily, a senior official said on Wednesday. Samples from Osmanabad were earlier being sent to a testing facility in Latur, which was facing the problem of excess load, the official said.

"For the last four to five days, we have made this temporary arrangement of sending samples to Ambejogai, as our lab in Osmanabad is nearing completion," district collector Deepa Mudhol Munde told PTI. A COVID-19 lab, with a testing capacity of 1,000 samples a day, is being set up in Osmanabad using corporate funds and no money has been spent from the funds provided by the state government, she said.

Speaking about the issue, BJP MLC Surjeet Singh Thakur alleged that the time taken to raise funds had led to a delay in setting up the lab and prevented early detection of COVID- 19 cases in the district. "I had written to the district administration on several occasions, asking them to use Rs 25 lakh from my MLC fund. But I didn't receive any response from them," Thakur claimed.