Microbiological Advancements in the Post-COVID Era

Abstract

Covid 19 pandemic had consumed the world since its onset in Dec 2019 when first case was detected in Wuhan China.The pandemic poseds a litmus test for the whole health care system of the country.Due to the unprecedented demand for testing with over whelmingnumber of samples,RTPCR labs, which were earlier used only for research purposes had to be set up on a war footing in all medical colleges and private hospitals.Not only this,the out break augmented the urgency to develop a number of robust rapid andportable devices and instruments. Kit based tests were designed for a rapid turn around time, as opposed to conventional PCR. Virology labs all over India got a face lift and they were armoured with state of the art facilities. Apart from this, another aspect which gainedparamount importance was infection control. This aspect which was overlooked all these years, garnered all the attention and infection control practices, starting from simple hand hygiene, utility of PPE, and biomedical waste management, were all taken seriouslyand came into daily practice. Lastly, this pandemic gave us a first hand experience of dealing with a pandemic and also an insight about how to go about an out break management. On the other hand its also worth while mentioning that this pandemic had siphoned all the attention of clinicians and scientisits,that other major concerns like MDR and TB and even chronic ailments like diabetes and hypertension havebeen neglected. This editorial is a peek into the influence of COVID 19 pandemic on different aspectsof Microbiology.