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The research and development wing of India's Ministry of Defence - the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has come out with a Mobile Virology Research and Diagnostics Laboratory (MVRDL), which would be used in collecting and testing samples for COVID-19.
Inaugurating the mobile lab on Thursday through a video conference, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the testing facility had the capacity of processing more than 1,000 samples in a day, and would augment the country's capabilities in fighting COVID-19.
The mobile lab is said to be a combination of a "BSL (bio-safety level) 3 lab" and a "BSL 2 lab," essential to carry out the testing activities, said an official statement issued by the Ministry of Defence.
These mobile labs are built as per World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Indian Council of Medical Research's (ICMR) bio-safety standards to meet international guidelines.
The mobile lab will be helpful to carry out diagnosis of COVID-19 and also virus culturing for drug screening, convalescent plasma derived therapy, comprehensive immune profiling of COVID-19 patients towards vaccine development early clinical trials specific to Indian population.
It can be positioned anywhere in the country, as per requirement, added the official statement.
India's federal health ministry on Thursday evening said five new deaths due to COVID-19 and 307 new positive cases were reported across the country, taking the number of deaths to 686 and total cases to 21,700.
(CGTN)
