The Union Home Minister, Amit Shah today inaugurated a mobile COVID-19 RT-PCR Lab at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in New Delhi, jointly launched by SpiceHealth and the ICMR. The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan also participated in the inauguration function. The Secretary DHR and Director General of the ICMR, Dr.Balram Bhargava, the Chairman and Managing Director of SpiceJet, Ajay Singh and the CEO of SpiceHealth, Ms. Avani Singh also took part in the inauguration ceremony.
This testing lab and more such labs which are planned to be set up, shall help in adding more capacity to COVID-19 testing. The lab is accredited by NABL and approved by the ICMR. RT-PCR tests are most decisive and crucial for COVID-19 testing. These tests will cost Rs. 499/- and the cost of testing will be borne by the ICMR. The people of Delhi will not have to bear any cost. This initiative is a step in making COVID-19 testing affordable and more accessible to the common person.
The test report would be available within 6 to 8 hours from the time of sample collection compared to the average 24 to 48 hours taken by similar test reports.
SpiceHealth has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the ICMR for setting up testing facilities (laboratories)and collection centres across the country. To begin with, the first testing facility has been set up in Delhi. More such testing facilities will come up in different parts of the National Capital over the coming days.It is planned to set up 10 labs in the first phase. At the outset, each lab would be able to test up to 1,000 samples per day and testing would slowly be ramped up to 3,000 samples per day per lab.