3 more labs to speed up Corona testing in Uttarakhand

After a large number of migrants have turned out to be Corona positive, the government is now going to increase the speed of sampling in the state. For this, it has been decided to start investigations at Himalayan Hospital Jollygrant, Almora Medical College and IIP Dehradun.

The government has expedited ramped up the testing numbers since the return of migrants. Increasing the speed of test, the government has increased it from hundred to more than one thousand tests per day. But compared to neighboring states and a large number of returning migrants, Uttarakhand still needs to increase more testing.

Over one lakh 54 thousand migrants have returned in the last 20 days in the state. Of these, only about four thousand samples have been sent for investigation.

Health department officials said that efforts are being made to increase the testing to to three to four thousand in a day so that the infected people can be identified at the earliest.

At the beginning of this pandemic in the country in Uttarakhand, the pace of investigation was very low as very few cases were detected in the state. So far, about 18 thousand samples have been investigated in the state since the end of February.

While reports of about three and a half thousand samples are yet to come. In comparison, Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir and other Himalayan states have far more sampling than Uttarakhand.

Uttarakhand also has more population than these states. In view of this, the focus is on increasing sampling.

Additional Secretary Health Yugal Kishore Pant said that the number and capacity of labs is being increased to check more and more people in the state. For this, it has been decided to start investigations in three new labs. Testing in the new labs will begin in sometime.

Testing in two shifts in Doon Medical College

The state government is going to increase the scope of testing for Corona at Doon Medical College for the early detection of the infected. For this, the capacity of the lab is being increased. In the medical college, the samples are being examined in one shift only. It has been decided to start testing in two shifts soon.