Coronavirus impact: Mobile lab for COVID-19 screening launched in Delhi
Union Government has launched the first mobile laboratory for Coronavirus testing in Delhi. The lab can be separated from the chassis and be transported to anywhere across the country by train. The unit was flagged off by Union Minister of Health and family welfare, Harsh Vardhan in Delhi.
The lab is equipped with equipment and gadgets that can carry out around 50 Corona tests along with 200 other tests that include diseases like TB and HIV in a single day. If the machines are doubled, then the lab has the capacity to conduct 500 tests in an eight-hour shift.
The lab is made as per the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) certification and 50 more of these will be developed and deployed in rural and inaccessible areas of the country to carry out faster testing and increasing the range of access.
The infectious disease diagnostic lab or I-lab was developed in just eight days and it is made by a team that includes the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology and Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone. The mobile unit will be used even after the Coronavirus pandemic is over and it will help the government fight and eradicate other diseases from remote areas across the country.
Recently, Toyota provided the Indian Institute of Science with a mobile medical unit to assist the government of Karnataka against the Coronavirus pandemic The mobile unit is capable of running tests for Coronavirus on the move and it can also provide results quickly, thus it reduces the turnaround time of testing for COVID-19 patients. These mobile units reduce footfall at hospitals and prevent overcrowding of patients, it can leave the people vulnerable to contracting the virus.
