Hubs and Spoke model approach to scale up COVID-19 testing in national research labs

In order to increase the testing capacity across the country, the centre has established in a Hub and Spoke Model for COVID-19 samples testing in government institutions across the country. The method involves the establishment of a main campus that receives resource investment and supplies the intensive medical services by campuses or spokes which offer more limited services at sites distributed over a wide area.

New Delhi: The number of active cases of COVID-19 is increasing in India and as per WHO (World Health Organisation) more number of tests and detecting the virus in the initial stage can help to tackle it globally. To scale up testing and enhance the reach across the country, city /regional clusters have been established in a Hub and Spoke Model for COVID-19 samples testing in government institutions across the country.

According to this model of the healthcare system, the method of the organisation involves the establishment of the main campus that receives resource investment and supplies the intensive medical services by campuses or spokes which offer more limited services at sites distributed over an area.

Institutes and Laboratories which have the capacity and expertise for both sample collection, handling/processing (BSL-2 facility) and testing (RT-PCR) serve as the hubs and they involve a number of laboratories which have RT PCR machines and the requisite manpower as their extended Testing facilities.

The Hubs are Government laboratories approved by respective Ministries/Departments [DBT( Dept of Biotechnology) DST( Dept of Science and Technology), CSIR, DAE, DRDO, ICAR etc] as per ICMR guidelines. So far 19 City/Regional clusters have been established in Bangalore, Delhi/NCR, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Chandigarh/Mohali, Bhubaneshwar, Nagpur, Pune, Mumbai, Lucknow, Chennai, Kolkata, North Eastern Region, Jammu & Kashmir, Ahmedabad, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Banaras, Palampur and Delhi city.

About 100 institutions have been involved and over 1,60,000 samples have been tested. Seven DBT Autonomous institutes have been approved as hubs by ICMR and they are performing testing for the diagnosis of COVID-19 (RGCB, THSTI, ILS, inStem, NCCS, CDFD, NIBMG).

They are also functioning as hubs in the respective Cities/Regions and coordinating the efforts with a number of other premier Central and State Government institutions. In addition, they are working closely with the respective State Governments in obtaining samples for testing and are reporting every day to ICMR on their testing results. Collectively in about 4 weeks, these clusters have done nearly 1,70,000 tests. These clusters will now be scaled to nearly 50 in the next 4 weeks and reach remote corners of the country.