By SK.Vyas:
Chandigarh-Jalandhar,April 28, 2020: Apart from providing COVID-19 testing to the Tricity and adjoining districts of Punjab and Haryana. PGIMER, Chandigarh has also been identified as the Mentoring Institute by the Indian Council of Medical Education and Research (ICMR), New Delhi and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India (GoI). Under this, the Institute has been given the responsibility of increasing the capacity for COVID-19 testing in all Government and Private Medical Colleges of Ladakh, J &K, HP, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Uttarakhand. A total of 31 Medical Colleges with no COVID-19 testing facilities need to be strengthened in collaboration with State Governments by assessing their infrastructure, space, staff, expertise, equipment and reagents as testing requires sophisticated molecular laboratory set up with proper bio-containment facility.
Under the Chairmanship of Prof. Jagat Ram, Director PGIMER, Chandigarh a Core Committee has been constituted for giving approval to Medical College Labs to start COVID-19 testing. Prof Mini P Singh from the Virology Department has been appointed as the Principal Coordinator for the establishment of these COVID-19 testing facilities Prof RK Ratho, Head of Virology Department is a member of the Core Committee.
A total of 40 lab personnel including Senior faculty members from various medical colleges and medical Institutes have been trained in the Department of Virology, PGIMER from 4th April to 26th April 2020. which is also providing diagnostic services for testing around 200 samples per day for COVID-19. The training for Real-Time PCR was imparted along with the Quality Management System as the Department of Virology is the WHO accredited National Measles Laboratory for molecular and serology testing.
Previously also, the Department of Virology had conducted hands-on -training for GMCH-32 and IMTECH for COVID 19 testing. In the first phase, additional labs of Command Hospital and Civil Hospital, Panchkula have been trained, thus preparing the Tricity to meet up an increased demand for testing. Under the guidance of ICMR, a total of 7 labs have been given green signal to initiate the COVID-19 testing and 2 are under process of getting approval in the first phase. For the second phase, Gap Analysis has been done and the help of State Governments will be taken to establish the facilities of COVID-19 testing and subsequently training would be provided.