CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday gave the go-ahead for launching a pilot project for Covid-19 rapid antigen testing from the coming week, as well as e-registration for people entering the state to ensure strict monitoring of those coming from the high-risk NCR region.
On successful completion of the pilot rapid antigen project, which will cover a minimum of 1,000 tests, such testing would be done on the migrants coming back to the state in the wake of reopening of industries and for work in the paddy fields.
Amarinder Singh was reviewing the Covid situation and preparedness in the state with senior government and health officials, through video conference.
The state will procure rapid antigen testing kits to scale up its Covid testing capacity, which is even now higher than the Central government's mandate of 140 tests per million per day in regions with positivity factor of less than 10 per cent.
With positivity rate of just two per cent, Punjab is already conducting 242 tests per million a day as part of its strategy to check further spread of the pandemic.
Notwithstanding the Union Government’s revised guidelines replacing home quarantine for domestic travellers with self-monitoring, he ruled out any such move
in Punjab in view of the large number of people coming to the state every day from Delhi and NCR, where cases were currently spiralling.
Punjab Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan said that all entrants to the state would be required to mandatorily register themselves either on the COVA app or the government web portal, and the registration certificate, with bar code, will have to be pasted on the windscreen of the vehicle.
Those without the certificate print-out on their car screens would be stopped and made to register on the spot, at the border, before proceeding, she said.
(With agency inputs)