Perturbed by piling up of swab samples of suspected patients at the existing testing facilities; the Uttarakhand Govt has decided to rope in the private hospitals and laboratories to increase its testing capacity. The State Govt would bear the cost of the samples tested by these private labs. Senior Cabinet minister and government spokesperson, Madan Kaushik said on Friday that initially the State Govt would follow the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh (UP) in reimbursing these labs for the samples tested by them.

He said that the State Govt would invite tenders from these labs for quoting the price of one test and based on them, the lowest price would be offered to all these labs. Kaushik clarified that the private labs should have been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). He accepted that increase in backlog of the samples at the existing testing facilities prompted the government to take this decision.

As per the report of the state health department released at 2 pm on Friday, results of 4758 swab samples are awaited from different labs of the state. The huge backlog was causing delay in testing of the samples of the suspected patients.

“The rate of sample testing in Uttarakhand is 2278 samples per ten lakh of population which is better than neighbouring Uttar Pradesh ( 1139) and Kerala (2011). The national rate of 2586 samples per ten lakh of population and Uttarakhand needs to test more samples to come equal to national average,’’ he  said.

At present the swab samples for Covid-19 are tested at Government Medical College Haldwani, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Rishikesh, Government Doon Medical College (GDMC), Dehradun and Government Medical College, Srinagar. A private laboratory (Ahuja Lab) in Dehradun has also been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct tests.