Madurai med college tests record 1 lakh samples

Madurai med college tests record 1 lakh samples

TNN | Jul 22, 2020, 04.41 AM IST

Madurai: Madurai Medical College has tested over one lakh samples so far at the rate of 4,000 samples a day using innovative technologies, an achievement for the college at a crucial period of the pandemic. A 20-member team has been working round-the-clock in the laboratory to churn out the results, says Dr C Sugumari, virology department in-charge at the college.

She said the sample load has been high in recent days with as many as 5,000 or more landing at the laboratory a day. In the beginning of June, MMC had two RT-PCR machines and RNA tests were done manually. As the number of tests increased exponentially, two more RT-PCR machines were added and capacity was ramped up to 2,000. One more RNA extractor was procured and with this they were able to increase testing to 2,500 samples a day. However, as the number of samples coming in increased, the microbiology department laboratory came up with innovations and expanded the number of tests.

Monitoring officer for Covid-19 in the district, Dr B Chandramohan, said it was a “super-optimal utilisation of resources’’ to test a record 4,000 samples. One RNA extractor can extract 95 samples in 90 minutes. With two machines, they are able to extract 190 samples which are then ready for PCR run — all in addition to the manual extraction already going on.

He said that with the help of Madurai Kamaraj University and other sources, five RT-PCR machines were mobilised, which means that the capacity was developed for running 470 samples in 90 minutes by using the latest kit.

Thus the capacity has been increased to process 500 to 600 samples every 3 hours.

In the last 24 hours, a record 4,000 plus samples were processed for the first time in the history of the lab by working continuously in shifts, thus achieving a total one lakh seven thousand Covid-19 tests.