COVID-19 test centres in all districts by June 15: Bihar health minister

Around 5,000 coronavirus tests are being conducted at 26 centres in Bihar and the number of testing centres have been increasing continuously, Health Minister Mangal Pandey said on Friday (June 6).

“The number of COVID-19 testing has been increasing continuously in the state. Currently, the capacity to conduct the test is about 5,000. At present, 4,000 patients are being tested with RT-PCR machine and the remaining tests are being done through CV net machine and True net machine at 26 centres in the state,” news agency ANI quoted Pandey as saying.

During a high-level meeting held to take stock of the coronavirus situation in the state, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar directed the chief secretary and other officials to make sure that all districts in Bihar have centres conducting COVID-19 tests by June 15.

He said that the target of conducting 10,000 tests daily would be achieved by June 20.

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“Apart from CV net machines, cartridges have also been brought in the state. A Cobas machine, which has the capacity to perform more than a thousand tests daily, has arrived in the state. At the same time, two RNA extractor machines have been installed at RMRI and Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), Patna. Also, an additional automated RNA extractor and RT-PCR machine is being sent to Shrikrishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH), Muzaffarpur, which will be operational in the next one week,” Pandey said.

“Apart from this, 35 True Net machines have been installed in the state and 22 machines are being installed. In addition, 30 more True Net machines will be installed in various districts of the state by June 15. Thus a total of 87 true net machines will start functioning in the state,” he added.

He said that the health department would be installing 20 additional 20 True Net machines to ensure the 10,000 tests-mark is achieved by June 20.

Currently, there are 21,035 isolation beds in the state, while a comprehensive plan has been chalked out to increase the number of these isolation beds to 40,000.