Backlog in labs as Arunachal intensifies testing

Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, May 10: The results of 458 samples are currently awaited as the state has intensified Covid-19 testing but with inadequate human resources in the labs.
A total of 1,823 samples have been collected so far in the state with the highest being in the capital region numbering 843. On Sunday, 226 samples were collected, according to the daily bulletin issued by the state health department.
As reported earlier, Arunachal’s Covid-19 RT-PCR lab at the Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (TRIHMS), the lone testing centre, is already overloaded with screening samples. Apart from TRIHMS, samples are screened at Dibrugarh and Tezpur.
Meanwhile, 86 swab samples were collected for the first time in a day for Covid-19 from persons in quarantine facilities and through the walk-in sample collection kiosk in Tawang district on Sunday.
Out of 86 Samples, IDSP District Surveillance Officer (DSO) Dr Sangey Thinlay alone collected 80 samples at the collection kiosk located at the Khandro Drowa Tsangmu district hospital. Six samples of persons at the quarantine facility at Jang were collected by Dr Rinchin Neema.
The DSO informed that till 8 May, contract tracing of 3,740 people has been done.
A total of 1,541 tourists that visited Tawang from 6 February to 22 March, 2020 have been traced and contacted over phone and all are doing well. So far, no one has been found Covid-19 positive.
In West Siang, 26 samples were collected on Sunday and the samples are being sent for testing to ICMR at Dibrugarh. (With inputs from Tawang and Aalo DIPROs)