Himachal govt notifies CSIR-IHBT as a COVID-19 testing centre

By Umashankar Mishra

New Delhi:  CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bio-resource Technology (IHBT), Palampur, has been declared as a COVID-19 testing centre. The Institute has designated staff with appropriate training to follow prescribed strict procedure and safety protocols. Additional Chief Secretary (Health) of the Government of Himachal Pradesh has notified this facility for undertaking COVID-19 tests by an office order on 22 April 2020.

At this crucial time of COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need of large-scale testing of individuals for the virus to contain its spread. “The institute is well equipped with the modern facilities and trained manpower for performing the RT-PCR-based COVID-19 tests. With notification by the state government, the Testing Centre has already taken up the job”, said Dr Sanjay Kumar, Director of the Institute.

He further said that besides testing, CSIR-IHBT and Dr RP Government Medical College, Kangra, are jointly working on sequencing of COVID-19 virus and other research work pertaining to the disease. He thanked the state government for offering this role to CSIR-IHBT to serve humanity.

CSIR-IHBT is a constituent lab of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). All of its constituent labs have been aggressively working on the five major verticals related to COVID-19. These five verticals are: (1) Digital and molecular surveillance, (2) rapid and economical diagnosis, (3) development of new and repurposed drugs, (4) hospital assistive devices including PPEs, and (5) supply chain and logistics.