Andhra Pradesh Director of Medical Education (DME) K. Venkatesh on Wednesday said the Government General Hospital (GGH) authorities were permitted to start offering the service of conducting the COVID-19 test at its Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL).
Speaking to The Hindu over phone, Dr. Venkatesh said: “The VRDL-Kakinada has been approved to conduct viral test for COVID-19. A similar facility will also be available in Anantapur within a week.”
Three more labs to test
“By Wednesday, three VRDLs at Vijayawada, Tirupati, and Visakhapatnam are conducting the test for COVID-19. Until now, all these laboratories have conducted the viral test for the 20 diseases”, said Dr. Venkatesh.
Andhra Pradesh has five VRDLs which were developed by the Union Health Ministry.
All geared up
East Godavari District Medical and Health Officer B. Satya Susheela added that the VRDL at the GGH would be offering the COVID-19 viral test facility for suspects from East and West Godavari districts.
“We have received all the required equipment from the Central government (National Institute of Virology, Pune) to conduct the COVID-19 test at the GGH and a team of virologists is gearing up to offer the service. We are preparing to begin the viral test service soon,” added Ms. Susheela.
