Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : Union Health & Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan visited the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and dedicated the COBAS 6800 testing machine to the nation here on May 14, 2020. This is the first such testing machine that has been procured by the Government for testing of COVID-19 cases and is installed at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
The Union Health Minister also visited the Control Room and the Testing Laboratories and reviewed the current status of COVID-19 testing with Dr S K Singh, Director (NCDC), and senior officials. Highlighting the achievements in ramping up the testing capability, Dr Vardhan said, “We have now developed a capacity to conduct 1,00,000 tests per day. Today marks an important milestone as we have conducted nearly 20 lakh tests for COVID-19 at more than 500 laboratories including 359 Government laboratories and 145 private laboratories in the country.”
He further added, “NCDC has been now equipped with the COBAS 6800, a fully automated, high end machine for performing real time PCR testing COVID-19 in the service of nation. COBAS 6800 will provide quality, high-volume testing testing around 1,200 samples in 24 hours. It will largely increase the testing capacity with reduction in pendency.”
Highlighting its other features, Dr Vardhan said that COBAS 6800 is a sophisticated machine enabled with robotics that minimises the chance of contamination as well as the risk of infection to the health care workers since it can be operated remotely with limited human intervention. As the machine requires a minimum BSL2+ containment level for testing, it cannot be placed at just any facility. COBAS 6800 can also detect other pathogens like Viral Hepatitis B & C, HIV, MTb (both rifampicin and isoniazide resistance), Papilloma, CMV, Chlamydia, Neiserreia etc.
Dr Vardhan said, “I salute the pathologists, lab technicians, scientists and other staff who are our ‘Corona Warriors’ and working under tremendous risky conditions in their line of duty, day and night to save the fellow countrymen.” He added that the nation needs to shun stigma and applaud the contribution of these frontline healthcare providers.
Dr Vardhan added that it is a heartening news that in the last three days doubling time has slowed down to 13.9 days, while the doubling time in the past 14 days was 11.1. He further added that the fatality rate is 3.2% and the recovery rate has further improved and on May 14 stands at 33.6% (it was 32.83% on May 13). He also added that (as of May 13) there are 3.0% active COVID-19 patients in ICU, 0.39% on ventilators and 2.7% on oxygen support.
“Today, there are 14 States/UTs that have not reported any cases of COVID-19 in last 24 hrs. i.e. A&N Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Goa, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Puducherry, Telangana. Also, Daman & Diu, Sikkim, Nagaland and Lakshadweep have not reported any case,” he stated.
As on May 14, 2020, a total of 78,003 Coronavirus confirmed cases have been reported from the country of which 26,235 persons have been cured while 2,549 patients died due to it.