Chattogram yet to get coronavirus testing kits

Hospitals in Chattogram have not received any coronavirus testing kit yet from the government.

Samples from two individuals have been collected today using kits donated by a foreign agency. The biosafety lab of BITID in Chattogram's Faujdarhat are testing the samples. 

"We did not get coronavirus kits from the government thus far. They are expected to arrive tonight," BITID Director Md Hasan told The Business Standard.

"We will be able to collect samples by using those from Thursday," he added.

BITID sources said a French organisation donated 100 coronavirus testing kits to the hospital. But those were not used until Tuesday.

Later on Tuesday night, the government allowed the BITID to use the donated kits. After that, two samples were collected today, whose results are yet to come.

"We need to perform an RT-PCR test in order to detect coronavirus. It usually takes four to six hours. We will know the results by tomorrow," Shakil Ahmed, head of the microbiology department of BITID, said.

So far, 17 samples have been collected from the port city, 15 of which have been sent to the capital's Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research. None of the test results came out positive.

"We have prepared 150 isolation beds in two hospitals of Chattogram and also prepared five institutional quarantine centres," Chattogram Civil Surgeon Dr Sheikh Razle Rabbi said.