Punjab: Medical staff to be trained for faster sample collection

CHANDIGARH: To increase collection of samples across the state, the Punjab government has decided to train community health officers, staff nurses and pharmacists in collection and packing of swabs for RT-PCR Covid-19 testing. At present, samples are collected by medical officers only.
Health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said Punjab had completed testing of over 1,00,000 samples for Covid-19.He said the state had increased its testing per million figures to 3,259 per day, as on June 3, better than the national average of 3,046 tests per million per day.
As part of its efforts to ramp up the testing capacity of labs in the state, the state government recently procured three new RT-PCR machines for its government medical college labs.
Sidhu said the department of health had started TruNaat testing in five districts of Punjab at Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Pathankot, Barnala and Mansa. The department has also started CBNAAT testing at Faridkot and Patiala. For the purpose of surveillance, around 995 rapid response teams have been formed in the state in order to conduct active surveillance and identification of people with influenza-like illness or severe acute respiratory Illness by house to house visits.
“State has conducted Elisa-based antibody tests for sero-surveillance in four high-burden districts of Jalandhar, Gurdaspur, Ludhiana and Patiala,” he added.