Punjab Government has procured 15 more TruNaat machines for testing so that patients are detected, tested and isolated early to prevent the spread of COVID-19. With this, a total 30 machines are functional in the state government’s hospitals.
“Guidelines have already been issued to all the government health facilities in the state for TruNaat testing. Suspected patients amongst COVID-19 warriors like healthcare workers, doctors, police, administrative officials, pregnant, SARI patients, and emergency surgery patients shall be prioritized for TruNaat testing in the state,” said the state Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Singh Sidhu on Wednesday.
The Minister said that State had 15 two-channel machines, and 15 four-channel new machines, which are operational and tests are being conducted daily.
“The turnaround time for results gets reduced in these machines. For instance, in four-channel machines, four tests can be done at a time and four results can be retrieved in 1.5 hours,” he added.
The districts of Amritsar, SAS Nagar (Mohali), and Jalandhar have been allocated two machines each, three in Ludhiana while the other districts have been given one machine each in the government hospitals, he said adding that one machine each has been given to three Government Medical Colleges also.
Sidhu said that as on July 28, around 4,167 TruNaat tests have been conducted in the State, out of which 264 have been found positive.
Patients admitted in a Private Nursing Homes or Hospitals, who require urgent testing, can also be referred to Government Hospitals for TruNaat testing at the cost of 1,500 per test.
So far, 119 samples from private facilities have been tested using TruNaat.