Coronavirus COVID-19: ICMR approves 200 testing labs across country; issues guidelines

New Delhi: In the wake of rising coronavirus cases in the country, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has approved the COVID-19 testing in more than 200 laboratories. The decision is taken as several districts requested for initiation of COVID-19 testing.

The ICMR guidelines said that a new facility will be considered in areas with no operational COVID-19 testing facility.

The criteria for establishing the testing lab are as follows:

i) The number of suspected cases in that particular district should be more than 100 per
day.

ii) The nearest testing laboratory for COVID-19 is more than:
a. Plain areas- 250 kms (4-5 hrs @ 60 Km/hr)
b. Hilly areas- 150 kms (5 hrs @ 30Km/hr)

iii) In case there are testing laboratories within the above mentioned distance, each of the
existing testing laboratories should be testing at least 100 samples per day.

iv) If the nearest testing laboratory is within the above mentioned distance, and not testing
100 samples per day, and does not agree to test the samples from the affected district,
then the existing laboratory will be closed down, and permission will be given to the
new laboratory.

v) The district should have a government laboratory with the following:
• Availability of BSL-2 level laboratory including a molecular biology setup for
virological diagnosis.
• Availability of a functioning and calibrated Biosafety cabinet type 2A/2B in the
laboratory.
• Availability of cold centrifuge/microfuge for RNA extraction
• Availability of a functioning and calibrated real-time PCR machine.
• Availability of staff with good understanding of laboratory biosafety and
biosecurity, trained for handling respiratory samples for viral diagnosis, RNA
extraction and realtime PCR.
• Available staff with experience of work in virology and handling clinical
specimens, especially respiratory samples.
• A robust Institutional policy on biomedical waste management of human origin.
• Well defined arrangement for segregation and discarding of biomedical waste.

vi) If the district has no government laboratory, but has a private laboratory which can apply for COVID-19 testing, the laboratory should have NABL accreditation, and the scope of accreditation must include real-time PCR for respiratory viruses. 

The total number of coronavirus cases in India surged to 3374 which include 3030 active cases, 266 recovered cases, 1 migrant patient and 77 deaths as per the Ministry of Health data at 9.40 am IST.