Testing labs overburdened, Div Com issued instructions
By: Muzamil Bhat CK
Srinagar
Divisional administration in Kashmir has issued fresh instructions to all chief medical officers in Kashmir valley about the testing of people for covid-19.
According to these instructions, hospital authorities have been told not to undertake RAT or RT-PCR testing for any of the recovered persons for covid-19 when such a patient is discharged from hospital.
Such instructions have come at a time when most of the testing labs in Kashmir are overburdened with a huge number of RT-PCR tests. Divisional Commissioner Kashmir has asked for rationalizing covid-19 testing and sampling so that no unnecessary tests are repeated.
According to the media reports Divisional Commissioner has written a letter on Monday to all the CMOs, in-charge of the Divisional COVID-19 Control Room at the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir’s office, Tahir Ahmad Magray said that the RT-PCR testing laboratories in Kashmir’s were being “overwhelmed due to huge testing load.
The government has also asked the health officials that persons testing COVID-19 positive through RAT were being re-tested through RT-PCR “thereby putting unnecessary pressure on already overburdened laboratories.
The letter of Divisional Commissioner has further instructed that RT-PCR shall not be undertaken for healthy or asymptomatic individuals, the Monday’s letter said.
