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Ludhiana to conduct 1,250 Covid tests daily
The move comes after the health department of Punjab on Thursday asked its officials to step up the number of daily Covid testing to 10,000, including 7,000 RT-PCR and 3,000 rapid antigen tests. Ludhiana has been directed to perform 1,250 tests daily, including 900 RT-PCR and 350 rapid antigen tests
The spurt in Covid cases in China and some other countries has triggered an alarm all across the country. Taking into consideration the same, Ludhiana has been directed to perform 1,250 tests daily, including 900 RT-PCR and 350 rapid antigen tests.
The move comes after the health department of Punjab on Thursday asked its officials to step up the number of daily Covid testing to 10,000, including 7,000 RT-PCR and 3,000 rapid antigen tests.
The count of daily tests in the district has come down to two digits since December. According to the data, the health department conducted 45,976 tests in October, 11,632 in November, and in December, the district has conducted 1,089 tests till now.
The civil hospital is only conducting rapid antigen testing. The testing at a private hospital is slightly more as compared to a civil hospital. Of 1,089 tests in December 2022, civil hospital conducted less than 200 tests.
On Friday, 92 samples were collected for testing, of which 19 were collected in civil hospitals and 73 were collected in private hospitals. The civil hospital collected 19 samples for rapid antigen tests, whereas the private hospital conducted 22 RT-PCR and 51 rapid antigen tests.
So far, 40,38,844 samples were collected from the district for testing. Out of these, the department has collected 23,18,110 RT-PCR samples, 16,74,206 antigen samples, and 4,6,528 truant samples.
Senior medical officer at the civil hospital Dr Amarjit Kaur said, “We have received directions from the health department to conduct 1,250 tests daily. We will start the testing as soon as we get the testing kits.”
Civil Surgeon Ludhiana Dr Hitinder Kaur said, “ Rapid antigen testing was going on with 30-40 samples being collected on a daily basis. Our RT-PCR lab at the civil hospital will be functional in 10-15 days.”
The RT-PCR lab at civil hospital Ludhiana was expected to start in June. Earlier, Covid samples were sent to Patiala but now, it has been discontinued due to staff crunch. Low testing could also be one factor behind the decline in active Covid cases in the district. The active cases stick to zero for the past week.
The active Covid cases have declined to zero in the district as the last patient recovered from the ailment on Monday and no new case has been reported since last week. According to the health department, as many as 1,10,610 patients have recovered so far and 3,018 succumbed to the virus. Almost after two-and-a-half years, there are no active Covid cases in the district. The first Covid positive case in the district was reported on March 24, 2020.
No active case since Dec 14
On December 13 and 14, the district had reported one and two cases, respectively. However, no new case has been reported since then.
There were days when city residents, at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, had to wrestle for testing, oxygen cylinder, beds, and vaccine. But now with the decline in active cases, there is minimal footfall at testing labs and vaccine centers. Around 62,07,390 doses of vaccine have been administered so far in the district.
Of 1,13,628 confirmed cases in the district, subdivision Jagraon had 3,030 confirmed cases and 111 Covid deaths. Ludhiana city had 1,01,907 confirmed cases and 2,455 deaths. The subdivision Raikot had 2,363 confirmed Covid cases and 78 deaths. As many as 3,139 people of Khanna tested positive and 158 succumbed to the virus.
The subdivision Samrala had 1,898 confirmed cases and reported 119 deaths. There were as many as 1,291 confirmed cases in subdivision Payal and 97 deaths.
Emergency nodal officer Dr Charan Kamal said, “ We are equipped and prepared to handle any emergency.”
