The King George's Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow has doubled its capacity for COVID-19 confirmatory tests.

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The university has also decided to start rapid antibody test on suspected cases, as approved by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recently. KGMU Vice-Chancellor Prof M.L.B. Bhatt said: "KGMU's microbiology department had two machines that could conduct 180 confirmatory tests in 24 hours. We have now received two more units-one each from National Health Mission programme and ICMR-and we can now conduct 360 tests daily." To ensure smooth functioning of the lab, the KGMU has also doubled the staff strength.

The vice chancellor said that in the rapid antibody test a sample is divided into three parts and tested one after another to minimize the error percentage. He also added that KGMU currently has reagents to test only 1,500 samples. However, more kits would arrive in the next two days. The rapid antibody or strip test is done to check presence of antibodies of coronavirus in the blood sample of a person. With the help of the strip test, it can be assessed whether a person is infected or not. After this test, the patient's swab samples can be sent to lab for confirmatory test if there is a requirement for it. The strip test can be done quickly and help in identifying suspected cases easily.

A team of 15, including doctors, research scholars and lab assistants of the microbiology department of the medical university, has been working round the clock from February when the COVID-19 cases started surfacing in the state.