New Covid-19 testing lab at Tiruvarur med college hosp

TNN | Mar 15, 2020, 04.30 AM IST

Tiruvarur: A new testing facility for Covid-19 has become operational at the Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL) of the Government Medical College Hospital in Tiruvarur on Saturday. This is the third Covid-19 testing facility after King Institute of Preventive Medicine in Chennai and Government Medical College in Theni, set up by the Tamil Nadu government. “The operation of the testing facility commenced at our hospital today (Saturday). With the new setup, we can test the swab of the patients and check the results at the earliest. The doctors and lab technicians have been posted to take care of the process,” dean of the hospital, Dr J Muthukumaran told TOI.

Muthukumaran said the lab will be functioning as the testing centre for swabs taken in their hospital and referred from government hospitals in neighbouring districts like Trichy, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Pudukottai etc.

The real time polymerase chain reaction (rtPCR) that was already installed in the lab will be utilized for Covid-19 testing. T

he swab taken from the throat and nose of the patient will be put through a chain of processes to get the results. VRDL in Tiruvarur is one of the nine such labs in Tamil Nadu. The rtPCR has been equipped with the facility to test 32 samples at a time.