Testing capacity will be increased with 15,000 tests per day within a month or two
SRINAGAR: The authorities in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Friday said that all the requirements were being put in place to fight Covid-19 and the government has sanctioned sufficient amount of funds and there was no shortage of anything at present including the protection equipment.
Officials said that the protection gears have been made available and there is no issue within testing labs. “The capacity has been increased over four thousand a day and now we are targeting fifteen thousand in a month or two. Three new COUAS-6800 machine is also being made available.”
Talking exclusively to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Director Jammu and Kashmir Medical Supplies Corporation limited (JKMSCL), Yashpal Sharma said that all necessary arrangements with adequate amount is at disposal and more efforts to increase testing capacity is underway to fight Covid-19 in the UT
“New machinery and equipments are also being availed and there is no shortage of funds to fight this pandemic.”
He said the COVID-19 related procurement is divided into 3-4 headings. “Personal protection equipments (PPEs) supposed to be used by frontline health workers includes, protection kit, N-95 face mask, triple layer mask, gloves, goggles and other things have been arranged in sufficient amount some of which were also sent by government of India, TATA group and self-procurement was also done,” he said.
He said that there is no shortage of personal protection equipments and the control for use is under the director health services of both the divisions and medical college principals.
“A single PPE kit costs around 900 rupees and should not go in waste since it’s produced at very insufficient rate in India that’s why it has to be used rationally. Now the demand is raised by dental colleges so it will be provided to them also”.
He said that as per the directions of government they have installed best equipments in the labs across the Jammu and Kashmir and with time testing capacity has also improved from 100 tests a day to over 4000 tests. “There are 6 testing labs functional in the UT at present.”
He said that there are still some challenges and they can’t go with the same pace, so they are aiming almost 15000 tests a day in next one or two months.
“New COUAS-6800 machine is being made available and will be installed at three places in J&K including, SKIMS, GMC Jammu and GMC Srinagar to rapidly boost the testing capacity,” he said.
He said that there was no shortage of funds from the government, “Funds was never an issue to fight COVID-19 and it’s not an issue at present as well,” he said.