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

As the number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra rose to 42 on Wednesday, state's health minister Rajesh Tope said seven more laboratories will come up across the state for testing suspected COVID-19 samples. 

At present, three labs are operating in Maharashtra where samples are tested for COVID-19. The centres are Indira Gandhi Government Medical College, Kasturba Hospital for Infectious Diseases and National Institute of Virology in Nagpur, Mumbai and Pune respectively. 

The minister said that NIV Pune is currently testing 400 samples per day.

"KEM Hospital, JJ Hospital and Haffkine Institute (all in Mumbai) will soon get the testing facilities. Most likely they will commence operations in the next five days," Tope told reporters, adding that similar laboratories will come up in different parts of the state.

Kits for testing will be provided by the Centre. An order of 1 lakh kits has already been placed. 

This comes a day after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said private laboratories are likely to be engaged to provide COVID-19 tests free of cost.

Private NABL-accredited labs will soon be operationalised across the country, Dr Balram Bhargava, the Director-General of ICMR, said on Wednesday.

With the number of positive cases in India rising to 154, Maharashtra has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 45. 

Tope said there is 830-bed quarantine capacity in Pune district and Pimpri-Chinchwad area out of which 160 are isolation beds. The district has recorded the most number of confirmed cases at 19.