JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir conducted 25.51 lakh Covid tests in the past two months with an average of 42,000 tests done per day, officials said on Sunday. They said around 3,400 tests per million population per day have been conducted in the Union territory (UT).
“The Union territory has conducted 25,51,157 tests in the last two months. The average test per day is 42,000 tests, which is around 3,400 tests per million population per day,” Financial Commissioner, health and medical education, J&K, Atal Dulloo said. Spelling out major accomplishments of his department in fighting the pandemic, he said the UT has installed three COBAS 680 machines in the last two months–SKIMS Srinagar, GMC Jammu and GMC Srinagar–which have enhanced RT-PCR capacities to around 15,000 tests per day. Referring to a surge in isolation capacities for treatment of COVID-19 patients, Dulloo said category-I (tertiary care level for severe to critical cases ) isolation beds have been increased to 2,226 from 869, an increase of 156 per cent, and category-II (for moderate to severe cases) isolation beds have been increased to 4,205 from 2,006, an increase of 110 per cent. He said oxygen supported beds had been increased to 6,108 from 2,396 with an increase of 156 per cent, ensuring that not even a single patient is denied oxygen bed.
Dulloo further said ICU beds had also been increased to 562 from 333 with 69 per cent increase, and two 500 bedded DRDO hospitals with 125 ICU beds have been build and functionalised to enhance the capacities of Jammu and Kashmir. He added that out of 82 newly-sanctioned oxygen plants, 40 plants have been made functional in the last two months. The senior official maintained that more than 5,000 oxygen concentrators have been distributed to isolation facilities in April and May.
On aggressive vaccination campaign for 45 years and above, he said J&K has been the top achiever in India with more than 73 per cent of the population (under this category) been vaccinated with first dose of the vaccine. Dullo also said that the UT has administered approximately 26 lakh doses in the last two months.
