Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 9
Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said on Tuesday that to conduct immediate Covid test of suspected frontline workers, sick patients requiring quick diagnosis and in emergency surgeries, dialysis, etc, the state government was all set to install 10 TrueNat machines at district hospitals.
5 already installed
- For TrueNat machines, no AC or special bio-safety cabinet is required
- Five machines have already been installed in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Mansa, Barnala and Pathankot hospitals
He said presently TrueNat machine confirmed only negative tests and positive results needed to be reconfirmed by RT-PCR. But recently the ICMR had approved the testing of positive tests from TrueNat to be confirmed by these machine itself by conducting second-step test. For this purpose, special chips would be made available at district hospitals by tomorrow where such machines were to be set up. Then it would not be necessary to send samples for confirmation of positive results by RT-PCR.
He said at present five TrueNat machines had already been installed at district hospitals in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Mansa, Barnala and Pathankot, adding that 10 more machines would be installed at Bathinda, Fazilka, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Moga, Muktsar Sahib, SBS Nagar, Ropar and Sangrur.
Revealing about the features and functioning of TrueNat machine, the minister said for TrueNat machines, no AC or special bio-safety cabinet was required. "One TrueNat machine can take one hour to conduct Covid test at a time. At a given time, two samples can be tested simultaneously," he said.
"Besides TrueNat machines, there were two CB-NAAT machines installed for Covid-19 testing, one at TB Hospital, Patiala, and other at GMC, Faridkot. Four samples can be tested simultaneously in one hour, but it requires AC or special bio-safety cabinet. So far around 194 tests have been conducted on these machines," he said.
"In addition to routine testing, civil surgeons have been directed to depute a nodal officer preferably microbiologist/pathologist/medical officers for adequate utilisation of TrueNat machines," he said.
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2AjVJDP
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