SGRH says new COVID-19 test rate implemented, some other facilities claim yet to receive order

New Delhi, Jun 18 () A day after the Union Home Ministry fixed the price for COVID-19 test at Rs 2,400 in the national capital, authorities at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) here said the new rate has been brought into effect from Thursday even as many private facilities claimed that "no order has yet been received by them".

The Union Home Ministry on Wednesday announced that the price for COVID-19 test in Delhi has been fixed at Rs 2,400 as suggested by a high-level committee set up by the Home minister on Sunday and now tests will be done via Rapid Antigen methodology.

Following Union Home minister Amit Shah's decision to double COVID-19 tests in Delhi, 16,618 samples have been collected on June 15 and 16, compared to 4,000 to 4,500 daily tests till June 14, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) said on Wednesday.

SGRH is a dedicated COVID-19 facility in central Delhi and its laboratory is one of the over 40 labs, authorised by Delhi government to conduct the tests.

"We welcome the revision of the rate, and the new rate has already been implemented from today. The new rate is quite feasible, especially in the difficult time of this pandemic," Dr DS Rana, Chairman, Board of Management, SGRH, was quoted as saying by an official.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday also tweeted, saying, the COVID-19 test rate has been reduced to Rs 2,400.

Meanwhile, some of the private hospitals which have a laboratory facility and few private labs said they were yet to receive the order.

Authorities at the Apollo Indraprastha Hospital here, when contacted, said, "We haven't heard from the government yet".

Some indicated there was some sort of a confusion about the rates.

Dr Arvind Lal of Dr Lal Path Labs claimed that the new rate applied only to laboratories which were outsourced by the government.

"For a private individual, seeking services of a private lab for testing at home, the old rate still applied," he claimed, adding, "there seems to be a confusion and we have not yet received any order from the government".

Delhi recorded 2,414 fresh coronavirus cases, the highest single-day spike here, taking the tally in the city to over 47,000 on Wednesday, while the death toll from the disease climbed to 1,904, according to the health bulletin released by the Delhi government.

The bulletin said 3,12,576 tests have been conducted till date. KND TDS TDS