Bhubaneswar: The state government Friday said that the Bolangir-based medical college has started testing facility for the novel coronavirus as per the initial announcement of the government regarding expanding COVID-19 testing facility in the state.
In a statement, the Information and Public Relations department Friday said, “Bhima Bhoi Medical College and Hospital, Bolangir, one of the youngest government medical colleges of the country, has started testing COVID-19 RT-PCR since the last three days. The number of tests will multiply in the coming days.”
The government had earlier said that the Bolangir medical college will start its testing facility by May 21, while another medical college in Baripada will commence the facility by May 31. The state government has planned to scale up the testing to 15,000 samples per day.
As per the latest statistics available from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), there are 13 laboratories in the state that are capable of undertaking testing for COVID-19. The government presently has infrastructure to test close to 5,000 samples a day.
The government further said that as of Friday 2,23,847 Odias stranded in other parts of the country have returned to their home state. “Odia brothers and sisters are returning to Odisha every day since May 3. As many as 9,474 Odia people returned to Odisha today,” a statement from the I&PRD.