Covid sample collection at city lab less than target fixed by govt

Kanpur: The capacity of the city’s Covid lab is around 1,000 samples per day, but the health department on an average is collecting 400 samples per day. The highest single day collection of 600 samples was in the third week of June.
The government has fixed a target of 1,200 samples per day but the health department has not been able to achieve the target. Divisional commissioner Sudhir M Bobde on June 29 had asked the health authorities to collect around 600 samples per day but that figure too is proving difficult for it.
It is said that due to low sampling, the infection chain could not be broken but is getting stronger.
Two months back there was no Covid testing lab in the city and the samples had to be sent to SGPGI or KGMC in Lucknow. Now, the city’s Covid lab has a capacity to test around 1000 samples per day.
The situation was under control but as soon as Unlock-1 was announced on June 1 last, the number of infected persons started rising. The city recorded 777 cases of infections in the month of June itself.
According to the data released by the health department, in the last 10 days (from June 21 to June 30) the number of cases had twice crossed the 500 mark. The teams had collected 578 samples on June 24, 537 on June 25 and minimum 252 samples were collected on June 28 while 438 samples were collected on June 30.
CMO Dr Ashok Kumar Shukla said “Several teams were collecting samples from various localities of the city. As per guidelines, a sample of any person who came in contact with an infected person is being collected after two days because infection can be detected after five days. However, sampling is being increased.”