Jaipur, (Samajweekly) As the number of Covid-19 cases continue to rise in Jaipur and Jodhpur, the state government has ordered the purchase of Cobas-8800 machine to speed up testing in these two cities, state Medical and Health Minister Raghu Sharma said on Thursday.
As on Thursday, Jaipur had 740 Covid-19 cases, while the tally reached 310 in Jodhpur.
The Health Minister said that the Cobas-8800 machine is approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration, USA) and shall ensure 3,000 additional tests as compared to the present number of tests been done in Jaipur and Jodhpur districts.
Sharma said the machine would allow both RNA extraction and RT-PCR tests to be performed simultaneously. It will be able to test both automatically and manually, he said, adding that Rajasthan is moving ahead to accomplish the target set by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to conduct 10,000 tests per day.
Sharma further said that testing is also being expedited in the Corona affected districts and hence, RT-PCR machines have been delivered in Bharatpur, Dungarpur, Pali and Barmer.
Besides this, additional RT-PCR machines have been sent to Udaipur and Ajmer to increase the testing capacity.
Testing will also be allowed by the ICMR in Bhilwara. Apart from this, testing facility has been started at the Desert Research Institute, Jodhpur, for conducting 300 tests daily.
