KHULNA, April 19, 2020 (BSS) – A total of 96 more coronavirus test carried out, the highest number on a day, at the COVID-19 Molecular Laboratory here yesterday, raising the total number of test to 605, as the testing of COVID-19 started on April 7 last.
“We received 96 samples of suspected coronavirus in the last 24 hours and all were tested, with one more fresh positive case detected,” said Vice-Principal of Khulna Medical College Hospital (KMCH) Dr Mehedi Newaz.
An assistant professor of KMCH was found COVID-19 positive yesterday, he said.
So, the number of COVID-19 infected patients’ in the division stood at 5, of whom, four were detected earlier, Newaz said.
“A total of 605 collected samples of COVID-19 suspects have so far been tested since April 7 at the laboratory,” said Focal Point of COVID-19 Molecular Laboratory of KMCH Dr A K M Tushar.
He said samples of suspected COVID-19 patients are being collected from all districts of Khulna division under supervision of all the authorities concerned including Surveillance Immunization Medical Officers of the World Health Organisation.
“We are smoothly testing samples of suspected COVID-19 infected patients with assistance of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) at the COVID-19 Laboratory installed at the Department of Microbiology of KMCH,” he said.
The civil surgeons, superintendents of KMCH and Surveillance Immunization Medical Officers of the World Health Organisation are strictly monitoring and supervising the sample collection process at the grassroots levels, he added.
A team of trained technologists is collecting samples and testing in the laboratory installed in the Department of Microbiology in KMCH to detect coronavirus, said Dr Shahnaj Parvin, Head of the Department of Microbiology of KMCH.
The collected samples are being tested in the laboratory here through using the PCR machine to get correct results and accordingly the results are being sent to the IEDCR in Dhaka every day, she added.