Covid-19 testing drops 60 percent in Punjab: sources

LAHORE: The Covid-19 tests carried out by the Punjab government to detect the virus in suspected patients have been reduced by 60 per cent, ARY News reported, citing sources.

According to the report, the coronavirus tests in Punjab reduced by about 60 percent against its capacity of performing 16,470 tests each day.

The figures available with ARY News show that the Punjab hospitals have capacity to perform more than 16,000 tests each day. Of them, only 8,175 tests were being carried out at the state-run and private labs.

The report shows that there are a total of 16 private and 18 government Covid-19 testing labourites in Punjab. The data shows that in the government sector, the Covid-19 testing labs have the capacity to conduct 8040 tests per day but, only 5812 tests were being carried out on a daily basis in state-run labs.

Similarly, the private Covid-19 labs has capacity to perform 8430 tests per day. The data show that private labs in Punjab are conducting only 2363 tests in a day.

It was revealed that only four labs across the province were conducting tests according to original capacity, while the remaining 34 labs have been performing half coronavirus tests than the actual capacity to perform virus tests each day.

Punjab Secretary for Primary Healthcare Muhammad Usman Said that government only testing those patients who have Covid-19 symptoms. He said that from the last few days, the number of critical virus patients in province has decreased significantly.

Earlier, 49 new coronavirus cases were reported in Punjab over the previous 24 hours, taking the provincial tally of infections to 87,492.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Covid-19, 13 more people died due to complications related to the highly contagious disease over the 24 hours, taking the death toll to 2,026.

63,977 people have recovered from the virus in the province so far