Sylhet hospital receives coronavirus detection device

Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital today received the Polymerase Chain Reaction testing machine, known as PCR, which will be used to detect Covid-19.

Once the machine is installed at the hospital's microbiology and virology department lab and pathologists are trained, testing for coronavirus would be possible here, said Dr Himangshu Lal Roy, the hospital's deputy director.

An engineer has already reached Sylhet to install the machine while a team, which will make the lab functional and train pathologists, will reach later today, he added.

"It will take five to seven days to start testing in the lab after installation and training are completed," he said, adding that all suspected coronavirus patients in Sylhet will be able to test here, instead of sending their samples to Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) in Dhaka.

Since the coronavirus outbreak in Bangladesh, IEDCR was the only authorised organisation to test suspected coronavirus patients. On March 26, three other labs -- two in Dhaka and one in Chattogram -- started testing.

As part of setting up labs with the testing facilities in all divisional cities, medical colleges at Rajshahi and Mymensingh have already received PCR machines.