Maharashtra govt caps maximum price for COVID-19 tests by private labs

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Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that the government has reduced the rates of the COVID-19 tests conducted by private laboratories from Rs 4,500 to Rs 2,200.

Tope said the lowering of rates for the tests would provide a relief to the people. "Rs 2,200 will be charged for collecting the swabs through viral transport media (VTM) from hospitals, while it would cost Rs 2,800 for collection of swab from home. Earlier, the charges were Rs 4,500 and Rs 5,200 respectively," he said.

The minister said that at present, there are 91 labs in the state for COVID-19 testing and about four to five are in the pipeline. According to him, the government had last week formed a four-member committee to fix the rates of COVID-19 tests conducted by authorised private laboratories in the state.

The state government was in talks with the various laboratories to reduce the cost.

On May 25, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) wrote to chief secretaries of various states and UTs asking them to do away with the price cap of Rs 4,500 per test on Covid-19 tests since prices of testing kits had dropped in the last three months.