The Indian Council of Medical Research has approved the use of the virology laboratory in the ICMR National Institute of Traditional Medicine in Belagavi as a COVID-19 testing laboratory. ICMR included the ICMR -NITM-Belgaum among the approved laboratories on its website on Thursday. The institute is headed by Debaprasad Chattopadhyaya who is an expert on virus and other pathogens. “However we will need some time to start receiving samples as we have to mobilise reagents and calibrate some systems as per the ICMR protocol,” an officer said. Regional Commissioner Amlan Aditya Biswas had sent a proposal to the Central government to permit ICMR-NITM as a COVID-19 testing laboratory a few days ago.

Source: The Hindu April 16, 2020 14:59 UTC