Combating COVID-19: Punjab doubles testing capacity

Amid the growing threat of COVID-19, Punjab government led by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has pressed hard to combat this global pandemic and increased the testing capacity in double-fold at the Government Medical College (GMC) in Patiala and Amritsar.

Disclosing this here on Saturday, DK Tiwari, Principal Secretary, Medical Education and Research, said the government is combating with this threat on a war footing and Additional Real-Time PCR machines have been installed at GMC, Patiala, and Amritsar to double the testing capacity.

He said that shifts of staff to supplement testing facilities has been increased so that the results of the tests come rapidly and the treatment process initiated immediately. He further disclosed that bio-safety equipment has been shifted from IIT, Ropar to GMC, Patiala to further increases testing capacity.

Tiwari said that the Medical Education and Research Department is working 24X7 and daily status report is being taken via video conferencing from different parts of the state so that concerted efforts should be focused on concerned areas.

He said that there is no scarcity of any medical commodity and buffer stock of N95 masks, PPE kits, triple-layer masks, and other essentials has been provided to staff according to protocols.