The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has put out a notification regarding six new private laboratories including one in Karnataka, being accorded approval to test for COVID-19. The ICMR comes under the Department of Health, Government of India.
The notification states that these approved private labs are in three states viz. Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The lab in Karnataka is located in Bengaluru, and is called Neuberg Anand Reference Laboratory. Present in the centre of the city, the lab is located near Bowring and Lady Curzon hospital in Shivajinagar.
There are four private testing labs in Mumbai, even as 18 cases of coronavirus in the city were confirmed, and the local government there is trying to keep the city under lockdown to combat its spread.
The private labs in Mumbai are: Thyrocare, Suburban Diagnostics, Metropolis Healthcare Limited, and Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre.
In Ahmedabad, one laboratory was approved viz. Unipath Specialty Laboratory Limited.
This comes even as concerns have been raised at the lack of adequate tests being conducted in the country.
There has been a lack of facilities in the country compared to the need, with the government even turning down people who were possibly exposed to the virus, but displayed no symptoms, for the lack of testing kits and facilities.
#CoronavirusOutbreak #covidindia #COVID #COVID19 updated numbers#india is already in stage 3. V are not doing testing enough for numbers to shown up. globally cases are increasing in tens of thousands in a day. Soon it will touch 50k #CoronavirusPandemic in #Europe https://t.co/gxyyQUcqo6 pic.twitter.com/wbvkOLbbRx
— Nitin kumar (@nitinkumar1976) March 23, 2020
Meanwhile, the government issued a notification on Saturday night that private labs can conduct tests for COVID-19, but ‘recommends’ that the tests should not cost more than Rs 4500.
However, users on Twitter pointed out the prohibitive cost of the tests and said that it cannot be afforded by the poor in the country.
Govt sets max cap of Rs 4500 for #Covid19India tests in Pvt labs. "Encourages" free or subsidised testing! Rs 4500 is monthly income of scores of Indians. This isn't d time to request, it's time to ensure d poor & vulnerable are taken care of. pic.twitter.com/G3S9gUZLI4
— Anusha Ravi Sood (@anusharavi10) March 21, 2020
Will every pvt lab when billing write which company's test kit being used?
— Rema Nagarajan (@RemaNagarajan) March 22, 2020
Imported test kits not available as all countries have locked down exports.
Why should pvt labs be allowed to charge Rs 4500 when Indian test kits are to cost Rs 500-700?
So, Rs 4000 margin on every test?