Jamshedpur: Amidst spurt in Covid cases, the district administration conducted raid at a private lab conducting tests illegally and charging Rs 1100 for Rapid Antigen tests.
Meanwhile, a team led by SDO Nitish Kumar conducted raid at Ankur Lab in Kadma and sealed the premises for illegally conducting Covid tests. The officials informed that the lab was not authorised to conduct tests. The lab was running illegally without any permission.
The state government has slashed the cost of Covid-19 tests at private laboratories in Jharkhand, bringing the maximum price for an RT-PCR test down at Rs.800 and that for Rapid Antigen Test down to Rs.150. Notably, the state government had fixed RT-PCR rates twice since the outbreak of the pandemic.
“The decision to reduce Covid testing rates was taken as the prices of VTM and other testing kits have come down. All prices are inclusive of all taxes, reporting and documentation charges. Anyone charging more than the fixed rates will be booked under the Epidemic Diseases Act.”
The officials informed at private labs have also been asked to send a copy of the test reports to the civil surgeon of the district concerned as well as to the state IDSP unit on a daily basis.