Mangaluru: The K S Hegde charitable hospital of Nitte (deemed to be university) at Deralakatte here has been given the nod by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct Covid-19 RT-PCR testing.
The hospitals laboratory, which is NABL accredited and notified by the ICMR, has started the testing facility.
The laboratory staff members are trained at NIMHANS, Bengaluru.
Microbiology department professor Dr Amith Kelgi has been appointed nodal officer of the testing facilities, a release from the hospital said.
The viral transport medium will be provided to all recognised health centres free of cost to collect the throat swab samples.
Tests will be done at an affordable cost as per government guidelines and test results will be submitted by expert staff on the same day, it said.