Just saw ICMR( Indian council of medical research) press conference, they are responsible for Chinese virus testing and setting up new labs.
First thing first, their Director General is an excellent leader. Kudos to him.
He has clarified many of things we are saying here. And I like the guy because he advised the private labs to do the test for free, nicely said because those testing labs were using media to pressure govt to get involve in testing.
Like: WHO guidelines of “testing testing testing” does not apply to us for now, they will be applicable when we reach stage 3.
We can’t participate in WHO clinical trials because we don’t have enough sample(patients) to supply for the trials, unlike UK FRANCE ITALY SPAIN US who are in stage 3 etc.
Our Disease surveillance system is robust, so far no scientific proof that community transfer is happening. This is based on random sampling on patients already in ICU in big govt hospitals across India. Status is updated every week.
Reagents are not the issue, they are manufactured locally. Probes are being imported from Germany. 1 million probes have been ordered.
Two machines which can do bulk testing of 1400 at a time will become online by end of the week. Ordered for more. France Spain Italy also have one or two such machines with them.
More than 11500 tests have been done so far, with existing capacity.
So far doing ok.