Health Ministry to depute ENT specialists to collect COVID-19 samples

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has directed all the States and Union Territories to employ ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialists and post-graduate trainee doctors for the collection of coronavirus samples.

"As there is an urgent need of trained and qualified personnel to collect these samples and the number of such persons needs to be augmented significantly. All states/UTs are therefore requested to organise collection of COVID-19 case samples by using the services of ENT specialists and residents," said Amit Biswas, a senior official of the Union health ministry in a letter written to all Chief Secretaries and Health Secretaries.

The letter stated that the country is in the midst of an unprecedented outbreak of COVID-19 and one of the key components of the government's strategy to combat this outbreak is contact tracing and collection of throat and swab samples of potentially infected persons.

The services of these professionals (ENT specialists) working in all government/private medical colleges of the states may be drafted for this purpose, it said.

"All medical colleges may be instructed to get in touch with state governments to offer their services. It is requested that necessary action in this regard may be taken urgently and report it to ministry," the letter stated.

It advised all the ACS/principal secretary Health/ Medical Education and Director Medical Education to issue necessary instructions to the medical institutions to ensure action on these lines so that such samples are taken professionally, stated the letter.

India's total cases of coronavirus on Saturday climbed to 7,529 including 242 deaths and 652 people, who have either been cured or discharged, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.