BSL-3 lab in Kohima to function within 20 days

Our Correspondent
Kohima, April 23 (EMN): The construction of a biosafety level-3 (BSL-3) laboratory in Kohima is inching closer to completion even as the work is in progress, according to an official.

Speaking to journalists in Kohima with regard to the progress of biosafety lab in the state, secretary for Health and Family welfare, Kesonyu Yhome on Thursday said that ‘testing of samples for Covid-19 in Nagaland will begin within 20 days from today’.

The official maintained that the state government is giving full support to the department in the expeditious completion of the biosafety lab and added that the department is pressing hard to enable the early completion of the laboratories in the state.

It may be mentioned that the equipment and technicians for setting of the biosafety lab had reached the state on April 16.

Meanwhile, Yhome asserted that the construction work is going well and stated that the technicians are even working overtime ‘to set up the most-awaited laboratories at the earliest’.

He also stated that more consignments are expected to arrive in the state in a few days’ time.

With apprehensions doing the round regarding the hazardous effects of laboratories, especially in Kohima, the secretary maintained that the BSL-3 “is so much secure” unlike any other kinds of laboratory.  He said that there is no need to worry.

Till date, the state has been sending its suspected Covid-19 samples to Imphal in Manipur; Dibrugarh and Guwahati in Assam.

This will no longer be the case once the BSL-3 lab in Naga Hospital Authority Kohima (NHAK) and BSL-2 lab in Christian Institute of Health Sciences and Research (CIHSR) in Dimapur are set up.

On April 22, the minister for Health and Family Welfare, S Pangnyu Phom had tweeted that the biosafety laboratory at NHAK is in progress. He had also assured the people of the state that the laboratory will be operational at the earliest.