Chandigarh, Apr 28 (IANS): Apart from providing COVID-19 testing to the tricity and adjoining districts of Punjab and Haryana, the PGI Hospital has also been identified as the mentoring institute by the Indian Council of Medical Education and Research (ICMR), a statement said on Tuesday.

Under this, the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) has been given the responsibility of increasing the capacity for COVID-19 testing in all government and private medical colleges of Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Uttarakhand.

Thirty-one medical colleges with no COVID-19 testing facilities need to be strengthened in collaboration with the state governments by assessing their infrastructure, space, staff, expertise, equipments and reagents as testing requires sophisticated molecular laboratory set up with proper bio-containment facility, the PGIMER said in a statement here.

PGI Director Jagat Ram said a core committee has been constituted for giving approval to medical college labs to start COVID-19 testing.

Mini P. Singh has been appointed as the Principal Coordinator for the establishment of these testing facilities, while R.K. Ratho is a member of the committee. Both are from the Virology Department.

A total of 40 lab personnel, including senior faculty members from various medical colleges and medical institutes, have been trained in the Department of Virology from April 4 to April 26 which is also providing diagnostic services for testing around 200 samples per day for COVID-19.