Etala Rajender, the Health Minister of Telangana, on the 25th of September, launched Cobas 8800 RT-PCR diagnostic equipment at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS.)
With this, NIMS of Hyderabad, became the first hospital in South India to operationalise Cobas 8800 RT-PCR diagnostic equipment, which would help to conduct as many as 3,000 Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 tests in a day.
According to sources, for the high end Molecular Cobas 8800, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) invested an amount of Rs. 6 crores.
The high end molecular laboratory set up at NIMS would be an addition to the existing laboratories for the COVID-19 tests in Telangana.
The Cobas 8800 is manufactured by Roche Diagnostics which is capable of improving operating efficiency, flexibility and fastest time to results.
As per sources, first 96 results of COVID-19 samples would come in about 3.5 hours and thereafter 96 samples every 30 minutes totalling up to 960 results in eight hours.
During the inauguration, Mr. Rajender said, “Apart from Covid-19 diagnostics, the laboratory will play a vital role in conducting complicated diagnostic tests needed to take up liver, kidney and heart transplants. Non-Covid health care facilities and transplant facilities will be revived in another 15 days at NIMS.”
Mr. Rajender further said, “Chief Minister, K. Chandrashekhar Rao has given clear directions to pull out all stops and ensure all possible treatment facilities are made available to COVID-19 patients. Due to his encouragement, we have been able to spend close to Rs. 6 crore just to establish this laboratory. We will very soon start construction of the outpatient block for NIMS and also coming up with a plan to enhance salaries of Class IV employees in government hospitals,”
Besides this, the services that would be available at the NIMS’ Molecular Diagnostic Lab include RT-PCR tests, advanced microscopy, Flow Cytometry tests, apheresis machine systems, DNA sequencing machines, ElISA readers, cell culture labs etc.
Stay tuned for further updates.
