COVID-19: Indian Navy transports medical team to Pune for setting up test facility

A medical team consisting of four doctors from the Goa State Health Department was transported to National Institute of Virology in Pune on Wednesday by a Dornier aircraft of the Indian Navy to undergo training for setting up a Coronavirus testing facility in Goa.

As per an official statement, a request to the Indian Navy for providing air transport was received by the flag officer commanding the Goa area on Tuesday, after which the Navy promptly began necessary procedures and the aircraft took off on Wednesday morning.

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The medical team also carried a few samples of suspected COVID-19 patients for testing. The team, led by Dr Savio Rodrigues, HOD Microbiology, Goa Medical College, is likely to return to Goa on March 27 after completing the training.

In his address to the nation on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country starting from the midnight to contain the increasing spread of Ccoronavirus. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases across India reached 562 on Wednesday.

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Coronavirus testing to begin in Goa lab soon

Goa will be setting up its own virology lab at the GMCH and it would be ready by March 27, state health minister Vishwajit Rane had said on Tuesday. The lab at the Goa Medical College and Hospital has been set up with the help of the Centre, he added.

"We have procured a PCR machine through the Malaria Control Center, and real-time testing for COVID-19 will be introduced in a couple of days," he said.

Rane said a team of doctors would be sent for training in Pune, after which they will be posted at the laboratory. He said the state government is in the process of procuring hundred additional ventilators in view of the outbreak.

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(With inputs from ANI)