Chitwan, May 10 : The COVID-19 laboratory in Bharatpur which had suspended the testing since the past ten days for lack of PCR testing kits has reopened.    
 The lab started its tests after a 10-day break as the Ministry of Health and Population supplied the test kits to it. It restarted the business on Saturday.    
Samples collected here used to be sent to Hetauda and Kathmandu for the test as the lab was shut down due to lack of kits. Now the available kits are sufficient to conduct over 1,300 sample tests, said Bharatpur Hospital information officer Leeladhar Poudel.    
This is the first time the lab gets kits on such a larger scale. COVID-19 test service had begun here on April 6. Initially, it was given 384 testing kits. Later it was given additional 100 kits which finished in just two days, leading the temporary closure of the laboratory.    
On overage, the lab receives 40 throat swab samples for the test through PCR procedure. If the sample collection goes as it was in the past, the available kits are enough for a month, according to Bharatpur Hospital chief medical superintendent Dr Shree Ram Tiwari. The laboratory is considered the second most reliable COVID-19 test facility after the Teku-based National Public Health Laboratory in Kathmandu.