Punjab plays catch-up on Covid-19 testing, but centres still not enough to meet target

AMRITSAR: The Punjab health department may have increased the number of centres for collecting swab samples free of cost, these facilities are still inadequate to meet the testing target of 22,000 per day.

As per state’s media bulletin, 19,004 samples were tested between August 31 and September 1, missing the target by around 3,000. As per the health department, there were only 214 government sample collection centres in 22 districts of the state till mid of August, but more were set up in the last few weeks and number reached 453. Health officials on Wednesday claimed that more centres have started collecting samples, taking the total to 700.

Health officials say the centres are still less and are overburdened. People have to wait for hours to give samples and there are many areas in the state where sample collection facility is not available.

“The sample collection centre opens at 8am for the documentation. People wait for hours for their turn as the sampling process starts at 10am. The centres in populated city areas are crowded and social distancing goes for a toss. It takes nearly 10 minutes to complete the sampling and documentation of one person and we can only collect samples till 2pm as we have to send these for testing,” said a medical officer of a collection centre.

“Amritsar’s urban area has 32 collection centres and these are insufficient for over 10 lakh population. Also, the new centres have not started functioning yet,” he added.

“In Amritsar district, the sample collection centres were increased from 30 to 68. We have been asked to set up centres in the rural belt and at present, 36 out of the 68 centres are located there,” said assistant civil surgeon Dr Amarjit Singh.

AGAINST THE TARGET OF 22,000 SAMPLES PER DAY, STATE IS TESTING ONLY 19,000 PEOPLE