In an endeavour to make an easy access of corona testing facility to rural population, Union Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan recently launched country’s first mobile laboratory. The mobile laboratory, also called I-Lab or Infectious Diseases Diagnostics Lab, can be deployed in rural areas to help promote last-mile testing access.

It has capacity to run 50 RT-PCR and about 200 ELISA tests in a day, a PTI report said. A double set of machines can help increase the capacity to about 500 tests per day in an eight-hour shift, Vardhan said while launching the mobile lab on Thursday.

“Launched India’s first mobile lab for #COVID19 testing to promote last-mile testing access in rural & inaccessible areas of India. Present with me on the occasion was Smt @RenuSwarup Ji, Secretary, @DBTIndia. @IndiaDST. “It can run 50 RT-PCR reactions and about 200 ELISA in a day. Double set of Machines can help increase the capacity to about 500 per day in 8 hours shift. @DBTIndia @IndiaDST @AP_MedTechZone @PMOIndia,” he said in a series of tweets.

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The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) under the Ministry of Science and Technology, along with the Andhra Pradesh Med-tech Zone (AMTZ), has initiated the DBT-AMTZ COMManD (COVID-19 Medtech Manufacturing Development) consortia to address the shortage of critical healthcare technologies in the country and move progressively towards a stage of self-sufficiency. The mobile testing laboratory is an outcome of this initiative, the report said.

“This mobile testing facility will be deployed through the DBT testing hubs to remote regions of the country for coronavirus testing,” the minister said.

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