State slips in testing per million

COVID-19 Kerala, Haryana, Karnataka surpass state even as its test figure went up from 14,204 to 17,342 in last 10 days

› States that surpassed us in testing per million are carrying out antigen tests in large numbers and are adding these to daily reports. We started doing antigen tests just last week. DR RAJESH BHASKAR, state Covid-19 nodal officer

CHANDIGARH: Punjab has failed to keep up with the pace of conducting Covid-19 tests as it slipped from the fourth position to seventh among the states in terms of testing per million in the last 10 days.

On July 17, the state was on the fifth position in tests per million after Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, but has slipped to the eighth slot, as per the health department’s figures. Kerala, Haryana, Karnataka have surpassed Punjab even as the state’s overall testing per million increased from 14,204 to 17, 342 during the same period. It reflects the testing in Punjab increased but it was not on a par with some of the states. The state, however, continues to fare better than the national average.

State Covid-19 nodal officer Dr Rajesh Bhaskar attributed the fall in the ranking to starting of antigen tests by some states. “The states that surpassed us in testing per million are carrying out antigen testing in large numbers and are adding these to their daily reports. But we started doing antigen tests only a week ago.”

“In the last two weeks, the state’s daily testing has increased from 9,000 to 12,000,” he added.

So far, Punjab has conducted only 3,500 antigen tests whereas the neighbouring Haryana has done 40,000 such tests.

In the state, 235 people have been confirmed positive using antigen tests that show results in half an hour.

Those found negative in these tests are retested through RT-PCR testing if they develop any symptoms. Punjab is learnt to have ordered 5,00,00 antigen testing kits of which 10,000 have already arrived. The rest would arrive in a phased manner, said a health official.

Punjab has conducted 5,72,067 samples with 15,456 persons testing positive for the virus.

For RT-PCR testing, the government has facilities at Government Medical College (GMC), Amritsar (2,000 tests), GMC, Patiala (2,000 tests), Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot (2,000 tests), Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana (250 tests), Regional Diseases Diagnosis Laboratory (RDDL), Jalandhar (250 tests), Forensic Science Laboratory, Mohali (250 tests), Punjab Biotech Incubator, Mohali (250 tests), PGIMER, Chandigarh (60 tests) and IMTech Chandigarh (100 tests).