The Kerala government may cap the fee for COVID-19 testing in the State’s private sector following the example of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Wednesday that the government had taken cognisance of the highly variable testing rates in the private sector following the recommendation of the expert committee guiding the government on COVID-19 containment strategies.
The Centre had earlier fixed the ceiling of RT-PCR tests at ₹4,500. Last month, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had removed this price cap and had said that State governments can fix the rates.
The private sector (only two labs in Kerala have been approved by the ICMR for doing the RT-PCR tests) is currently charging ₹4,500 for the test.
Recently, Tamil Nadu had capped the price of COVID-19 tests in the private sector at ₹3,500 while Maharashtra had capped it at ₹2,800 for swab collection and testing and ₹2,200 for testing alone if swabs had already been taken.
The Qualified Medical Practitioners’ and Hospitals’ Association had submitted to the government that either the samples from private hospitals should be tested for free in government labs or that the COVID-19 test charges of ₹4,500 should be included in the Karunya or Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhati.
