Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 31: Member of Movement for Peace, Equality & Justice (MPEJ), Kuldeep Kumar Rao in a press statement issued here said that it is very unfortunate that GMC, Jammu has not yet BSL-3 lab and more trained staff for testing dreaded virus.
“Why the administration of GMC Jammu has failed to establish BSL-3 lab in Jammu while the same is functional in Kashmir since 2017 ” Rao said.
He said as the COVID-19 testing must be done in a BSL-3 lab but as it is not yet ready in GMC Jammu, it is being done in centrally funded BSL-2 lab of microbiology Department, which lacks adequate testing capacity due to lack of proper infrastructure and trained lab personnel.
“The existing capacity of the GMC team is only 40 samples per day but in last two-three days several suspects of COVID-19 have been traced out in Rajouri, Udhampur, Samba and Jammu districts and they need to be tested immediately but with limited trained staff and in the absence of BSL-3 lab the institution is helpless to conduct the tests and do their reporting the same day,” Rao added.
He lamented that despite adequate funding and lapse of about 5 years even after its announcement, the administration of GMC Jammu has failed to establish BSL-3 lab while the same is functional in Kashmir since 2017 although both the labs were announced simultaneously which need to be investigated by an independent agency.
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