Need to enhance capacity, pace in Jammu
Govind Sharma
JAMMU, Apr 11: Experts have attributed the less number of Coronavirus positive cases in Jammu to low testing capacity, which is almost half to that of Kashmir division.
According to COVID-19 data trends of J&K available with Excelsior, 2656 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the UT till April 9. While 900 tests were done in Jammu province, 1756 tests were conducted in Kashmir Division, which is almost double. Till March 25, 174 samples were tested in Jammu division and only 152 in Kashmir but thereafter testing capacity gradually increased in Kashmir and on April 9, the number of tests conducted in Kashmir was almost double than those tested in Jammu.
Experts attributed this huge gap between numbers of tests conducted in both the divisions to huge difference between testing capacity of both the divisions. As per the data trends of COVID-19, GMC Jammu conducted 777 tests and Command Hospital 82 tests till April 9 while GMC Srinagar conducted 911 and SKIMS Soura tested 854 samples. 32 tests were tested in other facilities.
As per the experts, less number of positive cases in Jammu does not mean that COVID-19 is under control in the region as it is due to under reporting as authorities in Jammu province has failed to enhance testing capacity. They said the entire load of conducting test in Jammu division is on VRDL lab established in Microbiology Department of GMC Jammu which lacks both infrastructure and technical manpower. They said that there is dire need of increasing not only the testing capacity but also pace of conducting tests in Jammu as without mass testing, Coronavirus cannot be checked.
They said in Command Hospital, testing was started few days back while it is yet to be started in IIIM Jammu. However, the technical manpower is being provided in both these facilities by Microbiology Department of GMC Jammu, which itself is facing shortage of technical staff, leading to more workload on available technicians, who are bound to work even after midnight.
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