Nagpur Rotarians enhance Covid testing facility

Rotary Club of ­Nagpur Downtown, RID 3030, provided a hi-tech, automated RNA/DNA extraction equipment to the Viral Research and ­Diagnostic Lab (VRDL) at the Indira Gandhi ­Government Medical  College Hospital in ­Nagpur. The global grant project costing $42,250 was implemented with support from RC Chicago Cosmopolitan, RID 6450, USA and TRF. Persistent Foundation contributed ₹15 lakh as part of its CSR initiative, and Laxmi Constructions gave ₹2 lakh.

The VRDL is the only facility where tests for Covid-19 are conducted for people from ­Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, said project director Virendra ­Patrikar, adding that the new device will make the testing capacity at the lab four times faster. “Earlier RNA/DNA extraction was done manually because of which our PCR systems were underutilised, and we could test only 150 samples a day. Now with the sophisticated gadget, we can perform 500–600 tests,” said Dr ­Ravindra Khadase, who is associated with the VRDL.

The machine was handed over to the lab by District Collector ­Ravindra Thakare in the presence of DG  Shabbir Shakir, IGGMH dean Dr Ajay Keoliya and Sameer Benre, chief people’s officer, ­Persistent Systems, club president Nishikant Kashikar, Sandip Deshpande, Abhijit Deshpande, club ­secretary  Pratiksha Mayee, treasurer Prajakta ­Mangrulkar and Vinod Athwale.