Administration of Dhanbad, the fourth worst-hit district by Covid in Jharkhand, has deputed over 86 lab technicians to speed up sample collection and testing, the only way to keep a tab on the rapid spread of the virus.

The newly-appointed technicians will be collecting samples at Covid test centres at Patliputra Medical College and Hospital-Dhanbad (PMCH) as well as well as Sadar Hospital, besides joining mobile sample collection teams for all 11 blocks of the district, namely, Dhanbad, Baghmara, Jharia, Baliapur, Egyarkund, Kaliasol, Nirsa, Govindpur, Topchanchi, Tundi and Purbi Tundi.

The technicians are expected to increase the existing testing rate of 500-600 per day to 2,500 per day. Currently Dhanbad has 391 confirmed cases of Covid-19.

While 35 persons including six data entry operators have been deputed at the Sadar Hospital, 17 lab technicians have been deputed at the PMCH.

Dhanbad Deputy Commissioner Uma Shankar Singh said that besides the data entry operators at Sadar, six other lab technicians will be used for swab testing through RT-PCR machines while 23 others will be carrying out testing through trueNat machines.

Seventeen lab technicians have been deputed for sample testing through TrueNat machines at PMCH.

The district administration has also constituted block level mobile teams for swab samples as per which two teams of six persons each have been kept aside for Dhanbad block; one team of four technicians each for Baghmara, Jharia and Baliapur besides one team each of two technicians for Govindpur, Topchanchi, Tundi, Purbi Tundi, Egyarkund, Kalisol and Nirsa.

The lab technicians will work from 9 am to 3 pm in each of the two centres in PMCH and Sadar Hospital, while the data entry operators will work from 9 am to 6 pm.

Soon after assuming office on July 15, Singh had visited PMCH on July 19 and had taken stock of the Covid Testing facility at the Microbiology lab of the hospital and held extensive discussion with the PMCH Principal Dr Shailendra Kumar and others to explore the possibility of accelerating the testing facility in the hospital. The PMCH authorities demanded increased manpower for accelerating the testing pace.

On July 28, two microbiologists including Head of the Department of Biometric of PMCH, Sunil Verma and the Head of the Department of Microbiology BC Banerjee were deputed at the Microbiology lab of PMCH to increase the speed of Covid sample tests.