Ludhiana, May 14

A Covid testing mobile clinic and ambulance, which was started in August last year during the peak of first wave of Covid, is lying defunct since the beginning of 2021. The ambulance was prepared at a cost of Rs 25 lakh.

Local SAD leader Sukhbir Singh Sokhi performed a ‘pooja’ of the ambulance and garlanded it.

“This is the time when it is most required but it is lying defunct. If the department cannot run it, they should give it to some NGO to make it functional,” said Sokhi while garlanding the ambulance.

The ambulance used to conduct Covid test at the doorstep of people in containment zones, micro- containment zones, crowded areas and high-risk areas.

The mobile clinic and ambulance has contact-less thermal testing with nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab tests.

The fully AC bus also has an oxygen cylinder, sanitiser machine, a separate ambulance zone to evacuate critical patients. It has a capacity to collect over 1,000 samples in a day.Officials in the Health Department said the size of the ambulance was too big due to which it was not possible to take it to interior parts of the city. — TNS