Mohali health dept taking around 5k COVID samples daily with 25% RAT; nearly 3 lakh total samples taken in district
Harshabab Sidhu
Mohali, May 5, 2021:
The health department of Mohali has started taking 4,000 to 5,000 COVID samples every day to speed-up testing in the district amid a surge in cases during the second wave of the virus. Among these total samples, 25 per cent samples are taken by Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) method. Earlier, the number of samples taken by the health department in the district used to be 1,000 on an average.
Mohali civil surgeon Dr Adarshpal Kaur informed that all the COVID samples of the district are sent to a single lab - Punjab Biotechnology Incubator Agri & Food Testing Laboratory in Phase 8. She said the report of each COVID sample now comes within 24 hours as per the instructions of the state government. A total of 2,97,163 COVID samples have been taken in the district so far.
The civil surgeon said that the health department was all set to implement the directions passed by the centre to change COVID test rules. “As per the new instructions, we will increase the testing through the RAT method, as it can produce reports instantly. We have adequate arrangements including PPE kits, face shields, gloves and other testing tools for conducting COVID tests. We also have four mobile vans, that conduct tests in containment and micro containment zones,” said Dr Adarshpal Kaur.
Speaking about the COVID vaccine status in the district, Dr Adarshpal Kaur informed that the district was facing shortage of vaccine but on Wednesday, they received 20,000 fresh shots of Covishield.
Pertinently, the COVID tally of Mohali stands at 50,988 till May 5 with 8,701 active cases. 651 people succumbed to COVID so far in the district. 41,636 COVID patients have also been cured from Mohali.
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