NASHIK: In the Covid Testing Lab set up at Nashik District Civil Hospital at the cost of Rs. One crore with the funds of MP Hemant Godse, about 1.5 lakh citizens have been tested for free in the last nine months. Nashik residents have thus saved about Rs. 12.50 crore. COVID-19 has been wreaking havoc for the past over a year. The growing number of patients has created a shortage of equipments for treatment.
A private hospital costs over Rs 1200 for Covid testing. The lab was inaugurated by Guardian Minister Chhagan Bhujbal on August 7 last year by setting up a Covid testing lab at the district civil hospital with Rs one crore funds from MP Godse’s local area development scheme (MPLADS). Last year, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had directed that there should be Corona testing labs in every district, given the rising cases.
Accordingly, MP Godse had immediately set up the lab from his local development fund. Earlier, the samples had to be sent to Dhule and Pune for swab testing. However, since the operation of the lab in Nashik, this test is being done in the city. As a result, the speed of reporting has also increased. In the last two months, corona infection has reached its highest level in the entire district, including Nashik city.
Therefore, about 500- 700 patients are being taken for swab examination in this lab every day. As many as 1,25,859 swabs were taken for testing till Sunday (May 2). Of these, 34,989 reports were positive, according to the hospital lab’s microbiologist P Gangurde. This free checkup has saved about Rs 12.5 crore to date. The testing lab set up by MP Godse has saved the financial cost of the poor in the true sense of the word.