The University of Hyderabad (UoH) has been identified as a Covid-19 testing centre under the city clusters identified by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India.
The cluster in Hyderabad consists of the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), CSIR-Centre for Cellular Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB), National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB) and CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT) in addition to UoH. The coordinating institution for Hyderabad is CSIR-CCMB.
The city/regional clusters of testing centres will serve the city and State in testing of Covid-19 samples. Institutes and laboratories that have the capacity and expertise for both sample collection, handling/processing (BSL-2 facility) and testing (RT-PCR) serve as the hubs and they will involve a number of laboratories that have RT PCR machines and the requisite manpower as their extended testing facilities.
It will be ready for testing once the ICMR approved testing kits and required reagents are made available by the coordinating institution in Hyderabad. The tests will be conducted at a separate BSL-2 laboratory at CDFD.
“Our University, along with CDFD, is geared to effectively handle the laid down procedures for Covid-19 testing. It’s a privilege for UoH to be of help to the nation during these testing times”, Appa Rao Podile, Vice-Chancellor, UoH, said in a release.