Testing increased at IGI airport

By
Anshika
February 22, 2021

hile the Union Department of Health announces a strong approach to Covid-19 differentiation and made it a commitment in the most identified countries, the United Kingdom (UK), The Middle East, and Europe, the test laboratories at Indira Gandhi International Airport has great monumental responsibility in hand."The Department of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) in consultation with the Department of Public Aviation has reviewed the situation with regard to interventions required to reduce the risk of importing mutations into SARS-CoV-2. The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) will be effective from February 22," the guidelines said. of MoHFW.

The testing process suddenly increased previously about 500-700 foreign passengers were tested per day, the lab is now looking at 7,000 plus numbers. While the lab testing infrastructure was equipped to test more than 15,000 samples per day, the data entry team and sample collection experts had to be upgraded to 10 folds to handle large flow of passengers from the UK, Europe and the Middle East. "A major recruitment campaign has begun following the announcement of the SOP and more than 200 employees are employed overnight in the next two days," said the Genestrings lab company.

According to a record reported at the highest hours of the airport, it was determined that between 3 am and 5 am, there would be about 1,200 passengers an hour undergoing compulsory RT-PCR tests. "It is a bold and timely decision taken by the government to control a new wave of Covid-19 cases in the country. We are fully prepared and will ensure that all passengers will have a good experience," said Dr Gauri Agarwal, Director of Relative Labs Identification. Genestrings lab is the only lab at Indira Gandhi International Airport that was the first laboratory in the country to set up a testing facility until September 2020.