Health experts caution about maintaining quality as Centre caps COVID-19 test prices

Health experts have strongly advised the Centre to maintain standard procedures and using quality testing kits as the government set out capping prices for COVID-19 tests. As per reports, medical experts have maintained that while increasing testing and capping the prices, the quality of equipment used in the testing procedure should not be downgraded. 

"Quality assurance during COVID-19 laboratory testing is of utmost important for ensuring correct testing and thus isolation of COVID positive cases. The government has capped the pricing of RT-PCR testing in the interest of the public and also to increase voluntary testing. This should not be taken as an opportunity to compromise the quality of testing especially in private laboratories and hospitals," said Dr. Harshal R Salve, Associate Professor, Centre of Community Medicine at AIIMS.

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Importance on quality of the consumables 

Dr. SP Byotra, Chairman, Internal Medicine, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said that the quality of the consumables involved in the COVID-19 tests should be given utmost importance. He added that safety of healthcare workers depends on their exposure to the virus which directly transcribes from the quality of the virus handling materials, especially the viral transport medium which carries the virus as in case of any leakage, it becomes dangerous.

Anil Hota, CEO of SAR Cellulabs Pvt Ltd said that we should aim at enhancing production capabilities abiding by the USFDA standards and validating it by ICMR at the most affordable prices. 

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Meanwhile, addressing the COVID-19 situation in India, the Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan had said that over 5 lakh Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits per day are being produced in the country. There are now 110 PPE manufacturers in India, he added.

While speaking at the 79th Foundation Day of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Dr. Harsh Vardhan also informed that more than 7 crore COVID-19 tests have been conducted so far and the recovery rate is also improving. He also credited India's massive COVID-19 dedicated health structure has helped with keeping the death rate in check. 

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Inputs: ANI

Image: PTI