In unprecedented move, veterinary institutes roped in to test human samples for COVID
Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 13
In an unprecedented move, veterinary science and research institutes have been roped in to test human samples for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The move comes as an emergency measure as fresh COVID-19 cases across the country continue to emerge and testing facilities are under stress.
According to sources, three institutes under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)–the National Institute of High Security Animal Disease (NIHSAD) at Bhopal and one each at Hisar in Haryana and New Delhi–have been authorised to test human samples.
This is for the first time in the country that veterinary institutes have been asked to test human samples as an emergency measure in a pandemic situation, ICAR officials said.
“We started this activity on Sunday after receiving approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR),” a senior scientist at NIHSAD said. “We have the equipment and associated paraphernalia for testing such samples.”
NIHSAD is mandated to carry out basic and strategic research on exotic, emerging and re-emerging animal diseases and is also involved in bio-risk management and capacity building in areas of bio-safety, bio-security and bio-containment for handling high risk pathogens.
Under the scheme of things, the testing protocol and kits have been provided by ICMR and the veterinary institutes are only involved in the technical aspect of examining the samples and compiling the results. “We only have to run the ICMR protocol on the human samples being sent to us through our machines. All medical aspects and doctor-patient interface are being dealt with by the ICMR and hospitals,” a scientist said.
With the nationwide lockdown in force and office presence being reduced to bare minimum, special teams comprising senior scientists and domain technicians have been formed by these institutes to test human samples for COVID-19.
An ICMR bulletin said that till 9 pm on April 12, a total of 1,95,748 samples from 1,81,028 individuals have been tested out of which 8,312 individuals have been confirmed positive among the suspected cases and contacts of known positive cases in India. On Sunday, 15,583 samples were reported of which 544 were positive.
