Maharashtra to open seven more labs for coronavirus testing, says health minister2Photo© dnaindia.com

Maharashtra to open seven more labs for coronavirus testing, says health minister

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With doubts being raised on whether enough tests are being carried out and if there is enough capacity to carry out these tests, the Maharashtra government is nearly tripling its testing facility across the state to enhance its preparedness to combat and avoid community spread of the coronavirus. The corona positive count in the state reached 42 on Wednesday with 18 of these cases in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad.

Maharashtra’s health minister, Rajesh Tope, visited the National Institute of Virology in Pune and met the NIV director seeking their assistance in scaling up labs. The minister said the NIV team was working 24×7 and testing 400 samples per day. The Maharashtra government would be adding eight labs in around a week’s time to take its network to 10 labs, among the highest in the country.

Three new labs will be operational from Thursday morning, Tope said. We were waiting for approval from ICMR which we got today (Wednesday) and we will create a facility similar to NIV at the BJ Medical College in Pune, KEM hospital in Mumbai and a second facility at the Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai, Tope said.