In an interview, Lal said his diagnostics chain has 20 labs across the country that can do up to 30,000 RT-PCR tests for covid-19 per day.
While cases have increased in Delhi, according to Dr Lal, the number of tests has come down substantially, and a lot of demand for RT-PCR in Delhi is driven by international travel requirements.
Edited excerpts from an interview:
What challenges did you face in ramping up covid testing facilities over the past two years?
In the first wave, we dealt with the unknown. We were among the first few labs to be approved by the government of India for RT-PCR tests for covid-19. We built a state-of-the-art facility for covid-19 testing in just two weeks.
Initially, we faced challenges of shortage of testing kits, limited mobility of staff and material due to a strict lockdown and deploying necessary precautions/SOPs (standard operating procedures) to deal with a highly infectious disease. We were able to quickly train clinical and technical teams and sample collection staff.
During the second wave, the magnitude and severity of infection brought their own challenges, along with a significant number of our own people getting infected. We overcame this phase along with the rest of the country by prudently managing and augmenting resources.
By the time the third wave hit, the decrease in severity and the muscle memory built with dealing with the past two waves came in very handy, along with the government’s decision to allow at-home testing through the rapid antigen tests (RAT) method.
As a country, we are now far better prepared to deal with any future waves, thanks to the massive vaccination programme. However, one must not let the guard down as we have seen the virus can mutate itself very rapidly. We are seeing an uptick in cases again, possibly the fourth wave, but the severity and hospitalization again seem to be low.
What is your testing capacity per day during peak covid times?
We have 20 labs across the country that can do up to 30,000 RT-PCR tests for covid per day. We have done approximately 35 lakh (3.5 million) RT-PCR tests for the novel coronavirus.
How many samples are collected in Delhi at this time?
The number of tests has come down substantially, and a lot of demand for RT-PCR in Delhi is driven by international travel requirements and not necessarily due to infection.
What trends do you see in samples collected?
The positivity rate has also come down substantially. Further, most of the private labs are authorized to collect and only report on the status of infection in the patient and not the follow-up test of gene sequencing. However, we submit positive samples to ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research)-designated special government labs for the same.
Are covid test charges the same across the country? Do you plan to revise it?
Since covid is a pandemic, all test pricing is as per the particular state government regulations that may vary marginally between the states. Therefore, the question of our revising the rate does not exist.
What are your plans to expand testing facilities?
As explained earlier, we have covid testing facilities in 20 of our labs all over India that seem to be having adequate capacity to meet any surge in demand. We can also add facilities, if required, as we have built this expertise over the last two years.
What are your plans beyond covid testing?
We want to be focused on our mission of providing affordable, accessible and quality healthcare across the length and breadth of our country. Catering to our patients suffering from various non-communicable diseases (NCDs)/lifestyle diseases is a priority for us, who were neglected during the covid pandemic. These include diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases, cancer, diseases of the liver, kidney and lungs, and strokes, which are together responsible for 65% of all deaths in India.
In addition, we house the world’s largest centre for histopathology and kidney biopsies and are also the only private lab in South Asia to have an electron microscope. We intend to give these cancer and kidney disease patients better care than before.
Further, we are constantly working on introducing high-end sophisticated tests in India, especially in cancer genetics and auto-immune diseases.
