CRI demands more staff to ramp up testing capacity

Targeting 1,000 tests per day

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— “The institute staff was asked to ramp up its testing capacity up to 1,000 tests per day in view of the surge in cases. Increased testing can help contain the pandemic

— A request to provide one RT-PCR machine, deep freezer, centrifuge machine and other paraphernalia has been sent to the district administration, he said.

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, May 13

In a bid to enhance its testing capacity, the Kasauli-based Central Research Institute (CRI) has demanded additional staff and equipment, including one RT-PCR machine.

Being the lone facility in the district for conducting RT-PCR tests, it faces an overwhelming influx of samples on a daily basis. The institute tests about 600 to 700 samples on a daily basis with its two machines provided last year by the state government. At times samples from Kangra and Una are also sent to the lab for its early results.

“The institute staff was asked to ramp up its testing capacity up to 1,000 tests per day in view of the surge in cases. Increased testing can help contain the pandemic by early detection of the infection,” informed Deputy Commissioner (DC), Solan, KC Chaman, who recently held a meeting with the institute staff at Kasauli over this issue.

A request to provide one RT-PCR machine, deep freezer, centrifuge machine and other paraphernalia besides about 16 persons for data entry and lab work has been sent to the district administration by the institute. The highest number of 1,116 samples were tested yesterday in one single day.

“A team of about 22 persons are engaged in daily testing and 10 to 12 staffers are deputed from other departments when more samples are to be tested. Work continues till wee hours in the morning if there are more samples as an effort is made to provide the results the next day,” informed Director, CRI, Dr Ajay Tehlan.

The Deputy Commissioner informed that the institute should be given permission to appoint the requisite staff on outsource basis.