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Indore: It’s been a race against time for the scientists and lab technicians at the virology lab in Indore’s Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College (MGMMC).

The only virology laboratory in Indore, MGMMC’s lab was compelled to drastically increase its capacity as the Covid-19 crisis escalated in the ‘hotspot’ city. The number of samples being tested increased from just one on 21 March to a whopping 354 on 16 April, according to the college’s data. A total of 2,998 tests were conducted in the lab till 16 April — the highest by any lab in the state.

There are nine government and one private lab testing for Covid-19 in the state.

“It was very tough,” MGMMC’s dean Dr Jyoti Bindal told ThePrint. “As the dean I practically had to live within the lab to ensure its smooth working. You also have to motivate the staff, take care of their personal issues in addition. It’s a zero-error task, you can’t afford to give one wrong sample,” she added.

Also read: Only 1 in 24 Indians testing positive for Covid, ICMR says this shows our strategy’s working

Under-equipped & overburdened

The MGMMC lab was initially set up in December last year to test for swine flu and other diseases including Japanese encephalitis, chikungunya, and rubella etc. The testing method for a maximum of these diseases takes place through a real-time polymerase or RT-PCR process. The coronavirus especially consists of a key macromolecule called ribonucleic acid or RNA. This RT-PCR method is used to detect a virus, by spotting its DNA sequence.

When it first started five months ago, MGMMC’s lab only had one RT-PCR machine. After the Covid-19 crisis hit, the college was forced to procure four more RT-PCR machines — two were procured from the government and two borrowed from other universities, according to Bindal.

“I had asked the director of IIT to give me and I asked the Vice-Chancellor of Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya to give me another. I also had to request for their scientists which they agreed to…” Bindal said.

Three scientists from the medical college, two from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Indore, along with six to seven lab technicians and a few postgraduate students are now conducting tests at MGMMC round the clock.

“They (the scientists and technicians) are working day and night…only from 4-6 in the morning they get a break when the lab is fumigated,” Dr Sadhna Sodani, who is in charge of logistics and management at the lab said. “The college-level labs can’t do more than 48. And here we are doing more than 300.”

The plan ahead

Despite the long hours, there has been a steady rise in the virology lab’s backlog because of the exponential increase in the sample load after the district administration decided to ramp up sample collection.

According to data from the office of the Chief Medical and Health Office (CMHO), the number of samples being collected in Indore and the adjoining district of Ujjain increased from 11 to 536 within 27 days.

Until 14 April, all the samples from Indore and Ujjain were being sent to MGMMC’s lab. Meanwhile, the lab’s testing capacity was at an average of nearly 219 tests a day since 7 April when more RT-PCR machines were acquired.

As the backlog rose across the state, the Madhya Pradesh government decided to send 1,142 samples to Delhi for testing. On Tuesday, reports of 465 samples were released, out of which 121 were positive.

Reports on 642 more samples from Delhi were released late Thursday, out of which 222 were positive. The total number of coronavirus cases in Indore now stands at a whopping 842, according to the CMHO office data.

According to Indore CMHO Praveen Jadia, plans were in the works to increase the administration’s testing capacity. “Two private labs have applied for accreditation from the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research). The medical college’s capacity is also being increased. We are trying to acquire more RT-PCR machines to double their capacity,” he told ThePrint.

Also read: Karnataka school that held ‘seditious’ play now a quarantine centre for Covid-19 cases

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