HYDERABAD: The Telangana government on Wednesday slashed the rates of RTPCR tests for COVID-19 in private labs from Rs 2200 to Rs 850 when collected at the lab. For samples collected at home, the price has been reduced from Rs 2800 to Rs 1200.
The announcement came from the Director of Public Health Dr G Srinivas Rao on Wednesday who further clarified that the government testing facilities for COVID-19 will continue to be free of cost.
Presently Rapid Antigen Tests are being conducted across 1076 Primary Health Centres (PHC) and Community Health Centres (CHC) across the state. There are also 18 RTPCR labs run by the government and 50 in the private sector which conduct about 3000-4000 tests a day on an average.
“The rates of testing kits and PPE kits have fallen making testing much cheaper than before for the labs. We wanted to shift this benefit to the people and not burden them. No lab can charge more than the new announced amount and the prices are inclusive of PPE kits etc,” said Dr G Srinivas Rao, speaking to The New Indian Express. The new prices announced are one of the lowest nationally.
This is the first time the Telangana government slashed the private laboratory testing rates since the pandemic began. Several governments since March have revised their rates to make the gold standard test more and more accessible.
Meanwhile, several netizens have raised questions on the timing of the reduction in RTPCR testing rates, asking whether it was done keeping in mind the upcoming GHMC polls slated for December 1.