Yesterday, The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) advised government labs to store all positive COVID-19 samples for a duration spanning atleast for 30 days before discarding them.
The apex health research centre notified that all the labs should maintain an inventory(preferably electronic) of the total samples used. It also insisted to follow proper operative protocol to disinfect all samples before disposal by referring to the ‘Guidelines for storage of respiratory specimens collected for COVID-19 diagnosis by RT-PCR platforms in government laboratories’.
It said that the labs ought to retain clinical specimens for various examinations such as performing additional tests, for quality control purposes or for use as ‘control’ to analyse sample diagnostic tests. A single measured portion of a positive blood sample should be stored considering the storage capacity of freezer at the laboratory, it stated.
Samples tested might vary depending on the load and testing capacity of the laboratory, where a minimum of 50 such samples tested over a month, whichever is smaller should be retained at the testing lab for one year. ICMR has authority to map COVID-19 testing labs in liaison with different quality control labs. All testing labs should send atleast 5 positive samples and any available number of negative samples in a month to quality control labs.