India and the whole world are reeling from the rapidly spreading COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus Pandemic. Thousands of lives have been lost and lots of thousands more have been infected. Testing is not happening at the pace required to meet the rapid spread of the Virus and this is becoming a huge headache for the authorities. Earlier today, the Supreme Court ordered the Central Government to direct all labs to test for COVID-19 free of cost, including at the private labs. Now, the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has directed all medical colleges - both Government and private to obtain licenses for testing of COVID cases.

The criterion prescribed by the ICMR is that the colleges should have a proper infrastructure, with a BSL-2 laboratory, including a molecular biology setup for virological diagnosis and also a properly calibrated and functioning biosafety cabinet type 2A/2B in the lab. All colleges with these facilities can apply for licenses. Apart from these, the colleges should also have a cold centrifuge/microfuge for RNA extraction, calibrated & functioning real-time PCR machine and trained staff, including a medical microbiologist, and other technicians trained to handle respiratory samples and with experience in handling clinical specimens. Private colleges are also required to submit their accredition certificates from the National Accredition Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) along with scope of accredition for real-time PCR for RNA Viruses. As of April 7th (Tuesday), only 1,27,231 tests had been done across the country.