Punjab CM Amarinder Singh asks Health dept to push RT-PCR Covid testing to 6K/day by May 15

Pointing to the large number of returnees, who had tested positive, the Chief Minister said it was clear that Punjab could not rely on the tests conducted on it's people stranded in other places by those respective states.

Referring to the fact that several staffers at the Nanded gurdwara itself had now tested positive, Capt Singh said with this, the Akali claim that there were no positive cases in Nanded and the pilgrims had got infected on the way back or on reaching Punjab, had been trashed. He once again asked the Opposition to stop indulging in petty politicking over such a grave issue.

This was a crucial time in the state's fight against COVID, the Chief Minister said during a video-conference meeting with the Council of Ministers, which took a series of decisions to scale up the state government's battle against Novel Coronavirus.

Directing the Health department to come out with a plan to advance it's schedule for increasing the testing capacity, the Chief Minister stressed the need to be prepared for the worst.

He said that he had already asked the Chief Secretary to coordinate with the Central government to scale up the testing capacity to 20000 a day, to cope with the influx of migrants and others expected to return to the state over the next few weeks, in the wake of the new directives of the Central government.

The rapid testing would also need to be scaled exponentially, to at least two lakh, once it resumes, the Chief Secretary said.

The Chief Minister said he had also asked Baba Farid University Vice Chancellor to explore the feasibility of setting up a testing facility in Jalandhar, for which the government was ready to sanction an immediate grant of Rs one crore.

Capt Singh's directions on augmenting the testing facilities came two days after he ordered strict quarantining of those returning to Punjab from other states, and in the wake of test reports of 292 people returning from Maharashtra showing positive.

In response to a suggestion by some of the Ministers, the Chief Minister agreed to examine their proposal for home quarantine of the returnees, in coordination with the village Sarpanches and Panchayats.