PESHAWAR: The health department has authorised three more laboratories, two private sector and one public sector, to conduct Covid-19 tests as part of the plan to scale up the province’s testing capacity to 4,000 by middle of June.

“We have developed six laboratories in public sector at divisional level including that one each in Swat, Abbottabad, Dera Ismail Khan, Mardan, Bannu and Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar after formal authorisation process including lab development, machine installation, training and validation by the National Institute of Health (NIH).

“Two more laboratories in Dir and Kohat will start operations early next month,” Dr Asif Ali, the additional director of Public Health Reference Lab (PHRL) Khyber Medical University, told Dawn.

Health Secretary Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah has been the moving soul behind improvement of diagnostic aspect of the Covid-19. Dr Amjad Mahboob is head of the clinical team for Covid-19, which has finally resulting into expansion of testing services in the province.

Three more labs authorised to conduct test

There are now 11 laboratories in the province including seven in public sector and four in private sector. The potential capacity of these laboratories is 2,500 to 3,000 tests per day.

Dr Asif, who is currently on special duty as public health lab consultant at health department for establishing Covid-19 laboratories in the province, has travelled 8,000-km across the province since April 8 to set up diagnostic centres at the public and private sectors as part of strategy to ensure early detection of Covid-19 cases and put brakes on the pandemic.

On Monday, health department authorised three more laboratories, two in private sector and one in public sector, enabling the people to get diagnosed at the local level.

The newly-authorised laboratories are in Rehman Medical Institute (RMI) Peshawar, Shaheen Jameel Hospital Abbottabad and Mardan Medical Complex, Mardan. Already two other private sector laboratories have been authorised to conduct Covid-19 tests after a province-wide survey.

“We have been involved in training and validation of the labs and have developed lab authorisation guidelines. Our guidelines have now been adopted and circulated by NIH with some additions for the whole country,” said Dr Asif.

The labs have been allowed on temporary basis to carry out Covid-19 tests after meeting criteria and SOPs prescribed in the interim guidelines.

The HCC will inspect private labs from time to time to ensure that all these outlets perform Covid-19 testing in consonance with the prescribed protocols. In addition, all public sector labs have a quality control and quality assurance mechanism in place to ensure optimal testing for COVID 19.

Dr Asif said that the lab network established in the province would help them to deal with epidemics like dengue, measles, respiratory infections and other diseases of public health importance in future.

Currently, in private sector the government has recognised Anwar Ali Lab in Ali Hospital Swat, North West General Hospital and RMI Peshawar, Shaheena Jamil Hospital Abbottabad.

“These public and private labs are bound to follow the procedures and principles laid by the health department and national standards as notified by NIH from time to time,” said Dr Asif. He added that the labs would also share their reports with health department and district health officers.

He said that they had also asked all the labs and collection points willing to do coronavirus tests to fulfil codal formalities and protocols as laid down by health department to get authorisation.

All the seven public sector labs are not charging any fee for Covid-19 tests. The tests are conducted free of charge but samples have to come though hospital or DHO office.

Prof Ziaul Haq, dean public health at KMU, terms the expansion of lab networks a timely step by the health department.

“Putting Covid-19 suspected patients on wait for the result leads to more pressure on the quarantine centres, delay in hospitalisation and spread of infections. We need these labs in every corner of the province near the community,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2020