3 Saurashtra-Kutch labs conduct 500 tests daily

Rajkot: Three COVID-19 testing laboratories in the SaurashtraKutch region of the state have a total capacity to conduct around 980 tests per day. But, as of now these three laboratories test around 500 samples daily.

At Bhavnagar’s Sir T Government Hospital, lab technicians are equipped with three machines. “On an average, 300 tests are conducted in two cycles in 24 hours. Our total testing capacity is around 400 tests and we conduct them on samples from Bhavnagar, Botad, Junagadh and Amreli,” said Hardik Gathani, administrative officer at the hospital.

The COVID-19 lab in Rajkot, set up on March 28, has a daily testing capacity of 300. “On average, around 100 tests are conducted on samples from three districts including Rajkot, Kutch and Somnath,” said Dr Gauravi Dhruv, incharge at the lab.

The Jamnagar facility tests samples from Jamnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar and Somnath. “It can conduct 289 tests daily, but now our testing average as slipped down to 80-90 tests, from more than 100 just last week. We occasionally also receive samples from Kutch and Rajkot, if there are any technical issues at their end,” stated Dr SS Chatterjee, nodal officer for COVID-19 for Jamnagar, Porbandar and Dwarka.