Metropolis’ seventh lab gets COVID testing approval, testing underway in Cochin

Cochin: With an aim to provide end-to-end testing solutions, one of India’s leading diagnostic companies, Metropolis Healthcare has begun testing for Covid-19 in the state of Kerala. The Metropolis lab in Kerala is accredited by NABL for the last 15 years and received the ICMR approval and has been conducting tests since the last week of July at its lab in Cochin.  Additionally, Metropolis has six other labs in the country that is already approved for COVID testing at Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Chennai, Delhi and Bangalore.

Sharing his views on the same, Dr. Ramesh Kumar, Chief of Laboratory, Metropolis Healthcare Ltd said, “We are happy to announce that we have begun testing using TrueNat technology at the Cochin lab. Metropolis philosophy rests on the pillars of technological superiority, a warm patient-centric approach, and reliable diagnostic reports. Across the seven COVID labs in the country, we are conducting thousands of COVID tests each day and we are honored to be able to serve the nation during this pandemic.”

How does TrueNat work? 

RT PCR or reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction is a method that includes capturing specific genes from the extracted RNA from the sample. A small part of specific RNA is converted to DNA, and then it is amplified to a large amount through a series of chemical processes. TrueNat is a chip-based, battery-operated RT-PCR kit. The new TrueNat machines are equipped to detect the E genes and  RdRp genes separately from the virus RNA, and hence these tests are treated as a confirmation for the presence of the novel coronavirus.