BackPracto partners with Thyrocare to conduct COVID-19 detection test
Starting Saturday, the facility will be available to Mumbai residents for ₹4,500 and will soon be expanded to the rest of the countryThe report will be made available to the patients on the Practo website within 24-48 hours of the sample collection
PremiumBENGALURU : Digital healthcare platform Practo on Saturday said that it has partnered with Thyrocare Technologies Ltd to conduct COVID-19 detection tests, after obtaining permission from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the government.
As of now, the testing facility has been made available to Mumbai residents for ₹4,500 and will soon be expanded to the rest of the country. Bookings for the test can be made online on both - Practo and Thyrocare website.
At the time of testing, a valid prescription, duly filled test requisition form signed by the physician, and a photo ID card has to be presented, as per the government guidelines.
The government has mandated only real-time polymerase chain reaction or PCR-based assay to be done by the private laboratories, which usually takes 90 samples in a single run. However, all the authorized private laboratories will have to send positive samples to the National Institute of Virology, Pune which will give the final confirmation.
Dr Alexander Kuruvilla, chief health strategy officer, Practo, said, "Widespread testing is critical to track the scale and prevent the transmission of COVID-19. To ensure that anyone who experiences the symptoms of the infection can get tested, the government is constantly working on expanding the list of labs and centers. We've partnered with Thyrocare to ensure that access to these tests is not an issue. We will continue to work closely with the authorities to identify more such areas where Practo can solve for accessibility - be it for doctor consultations, testing or medicine delivery."
Certified phlebotomists from I2H will collect the samples from the patients’ homes directly. They will take necessary precautions mentioned in the ICMR guidelines while taking the swabs. The swab, that is taken during the test, will be collected in a viral transport medium (VTM) and transported in a cold chain to the Thyrocare laboratory for COVID-19 testing.
The report will be made available to the patients on the Practo website within 24-48 hours of the sample collection.
The central government has reached out to multiple online lab aggregators such as MedLife and NetMeds to come up with a plan to kick start doorstep testing for suspected COVID-19 cases, said two industry executives aware of the development.
The plan is to directly tap onto the existing working relationships that online aggregators already have with private labs. Government-approved private labs such as Thyrocare, and Lal Path Labs already have partnerships with many online platforms such as MedLife and NetMeds for home-based sample collection.
"The government is looking at simply using this existing relationship between the platform and the lab. A person working for the aggregator platform will go collect samples which will then be handed over to approved private labs" added the first person quoted above.
Srishti Choudhary contributed to the story
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