TN to bear expenses of COVID testing in pvt labs

Last week, the Supreme Court, in an interim order, had asked the government to make testing for COVID-19 free in all healthcare facilities. Dr Rajesh said the government will fix the cost of testing and reimburse expenses incurred at both government and private testing facilities.

“The State is initiating aggressive testing and individuals with flu like symptoms, SARI and secondary contacts will also be tested,” the Health Secretary said.

She assured that TN has adequate number of kits and the delay in arrival of the rapid testing kits will not be a problem. She pointed out that rapid testing kits were merely a surveillance tool and that TN has an adequate number of real-time RNA test kits.“We currently have 24,000 real time RNA test kits and are likely to receive 90,000 more such kits in the coming week,” Dr Rajesh said.

The government’s decision was welcomed by private health care facilities here. A spokesperson of MIOT Hospitals, which is an approved private facility for COVID-19 testing, said that the hospital authorities are ready to co-operate with the government. “It is high time that private sector joins hands with the government to bring down the surge in cases. We are ready with all facilities and will cooperate with the government,” the official said.

Welcoming the move, Dr GSK Velu, Chairman and Managing Director of Neuberg Diagnostics said that this will assist government’s efforts to scale up testing of asymptomatic individuals and stop community transmission. “Most COVID-19 carriers are asymptomatic or people with undetected or mild symptoms of the virus. They are more likely to spread the virus not diagnosed in time,” he added.