Cricketer Harbajan Singh has offered to set up a mobile laboratory for Covid-19 testing in Pune. The lab will be pressed into service on Saturday. “Indian cricketer Harbajan Singh had approached us a few days ago and offered help to contain the Covid-19 surge. The mobile lab for Covid-19 testing will start at Vadgaonsheri tomorrow,” said state BJP chief Chandrakant Patil. The mobile laboratory will be operated by city-based diagnostics company Mylab Discovery Solutions, he said, adding this would increase the testing capacity in the city. The mobile laboratory will have the capacity to test 1,500 samples each day and would be able to give the result of the RT-PCR tests in four hours. The mobile laboratory would move across the city and provide free testing to those below poverty line (BPL) while Rs 500 per test for other citizens. “It will be easily moved in slum areas and other localities making it possible to have easy access to the testing. This will help in faster testing and results which will further help in treating At present, the city is conducting over 20,000 tests of suspected Covid-19 patients and registering a high positivity rate of above 20 per cent from the last few weeks. Most of the tests are being conducted by private laboratories. The overload of testing has been delaying the results of the Covid-19 tests of suspected patients leading to delay in treatment of critically ill patients. The hospitalisation of patients is based on the Covid19 test report of the patient along with the health condition. As on April 22, there are a total of 51,552 active patients in the city after 4,539 newly infected patients while 4,851 were cured and 56 died of the viral infection. A total of 22,277 tests were carried out on the day. - Stay updated with the latest Pune news. Follow Express Pune on Twitter here and on Facebook here. You can also join our Express Pune Telegram channel here.
