india

Updated: Apr 23, 2020 17:04 IST

Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday unveiled, via video conference, a mobile virology research and diagnostics laboratory (MVRDL) that will speed up coronavirus disease screening and other Covid-19-related research and development activities, the defence ministry said in a statement.

The MVRDL has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Hyderabad-based Employees’ State Insurance Corporation hospital and private industry.

The DRDO is among the several government agencies that have been at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus disease. It has developed several products to combat the pandemic, including ventilators, PPE kits, large area sanitisation solutions and Covid-19 sample collection kiosks.

Singh appreciated the setting up of the ‘Biosafety Level 2 and Level 3’ laboratory in a record time of 15 days (in the ordinary course, it could have taken six months), the ministry said in a statement.

The minister said the testing facility, capable of processing more than 1,000 samples a day, would strengthen the country’s capabilities to fight the coronavirus disease.

“The lab is the combination of a BSL 3 lab and a BSL 2 lab essential to carry out the activities. The labs are built as per World Health Organisation and Indian Council of Medical Research biosafety standards to meet international guidelines. The system has built-in electrical controls, LAN, telephone cabling and CCTV,” the ministry said.

Singh said the government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had taken a raft of timely measures because of which the spread of Covid-19 in the country was far less compared to many other countries. He also appreciated the contribution of the armed forces in the fight against Covid-19, with special reference to setting up of quarantine centres, providing healthcare facilities and evacuating Indian nationals from other countries.

The video conference launch of the facility was attended by minister of state for home affairs G Kishan Reddy, minister of state for labour and employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar and DRDO chairman G Satheesh Reddy.

“The mobile lab will help carry out Covid-19 diagnosis, virus culturing for drug screening, convalescent plasma derived therapy, comprehensive immune profiling of Covid-19 patients towards vaccine development and early clinical trials specific to Indian population. The lab screens 1000-2000 samples per day. This lab can be positioned anywhere in the country,” the statement said.

The DRDO acknowledged the contributions of M/s iCOMM for providing containers, M/s iClean for designing and building the BSL-2 and BSL-3 labs in a time-bound manner and M/s Hi Tech Hydraulics for providing the base frame.

The DRDO last week shifted a key testing facility for carrying out quality checks on personal protective equipment (PPE) from Gwalior to New Delhi to cut down delays and ensure faster delivery of the safety gear to healthcare workers battling Covid-19.