The newly installed regional laboratory to detect coronavirus (COVID-19) patients started functioning in Rajshahi on Wednesday, reports BSS.
The laboratory has been established in four rooms of the Department of Virology in Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) through installing all the requisite equipment, including the machine for Polymerase Chain Reaction testing, widely known as PCR, said Prof Dr Sabera Gulnahar, head of the virology department and in-charge of the laboratory.
Two teams of technicians from Dhaka prepared the laboratory in five days.
“We have started the lab activities through testing samples of a patient admitted to an isolation unit here around 11 am today. The highest eight samples could be tested on an average daily,” she said, adding the result can be found within 8-12 hours after the test.
Prof Gulnahar said a 30-member technical team comprising doctors and technologists from the RMCH’s departments of microbiology, virology and biochemistry has already been formed to run the laboratory properly.
She said the team members were imparted training online and the technicians and engineers coming from Dhaka have also trained them practically.
Prof Sabera Gulnahar said necessary kits and chemicals for testing the virus reached from Dhaka.
