AMC refrains private labs from conducting Covid-19 tests

Aurangabad, March 23:

In a major development, the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has refrained the private laboratories in the city from conducting Covid-19 tests. The decision has been taken after the civic administration came to know about the exorbitant charges collected by these private laboratories.

There are two private laboratories, situated in Samarthnagar and Sutgirni Chowk (Garkheda), which were authorised for conducting the RT-PCR and antigen tests. However, the AMC claimed to receive complaints saying that these laboratories are issuing reports as per the convenience to the citizens and collect huge charges against it. Taking cognizance of the complaints, the AMC ordered the private laboratories, on Tuesday, to stop conducting Covid-19 tests. Meanwhile, the suspects are appealed to contact the AMC centre for testing.

As per the AMC reports, the private laboratories had conducted 27,330 RT-PCR and antigen tests in the last one year. Of which, 3,704 persons were detected as Covid-19 patients and 23,626 were tested negatives.