RAJSHAHI, April 7, 2020 (BSS) – A total of 98 samples were tested in the newly installed regional laboratory to detect coronavirus (COVID-19) patients here till yesterday (Monday) since its start on April 1.
“We tested samples of 98 suspected COVID-19 patients. Of those, 31 samples were collected on Monday from different districts in Rajshahi division,” said Prof Dr Sabera Gulnahar, head of the virology department and in-charge of the laboratory.
The laboratory has been established in four rooms of the Department of Virology in Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) through installing all the requisite equipments, including the machine for Polymerase Chain Reaction testing, widely known as PCR, she added.
The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) provided the lab with necessary kits and chemicals for testing the COVID-19 infection maintaining international standards.
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 necessary training and the technicians and engineers coming from Dhaka have also trained them practically.
Prof Sabera Gulnahar said the trained technologists are collecting samples under supervision of the Civil Surgeons, Superintendents of District Sadar Hospitals and Surveillance Immunization Medical Officers of the World Health Organisation at the district levels.
Subsequently, the collected samples are being sent to the laboratory for testing using the PCR machine to get correct results and the test results are being sent to the IEDCR in Dhaka every day, she added.