The Union Health Ministry has recently asked all states and union territories to make ENT specialists and resident doctors collect samples for COVID-19 testing.
In a letter addressed to all chief secretaries and principal secretaries (Health), the ministry also said that there is an urgent need of hiring of trained and qualified personnel to collect the samples soon in order to curb the massive outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
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The ministry stated that one of the key strategies taken by the government to curb the coronavirus outbreak is contact tracing and collection of throat and swab samples of potentially infected persons.
There is an urgent need of trained and qualified personnel to collect these samples and the number of such persons needs to be augmented significantly,” the ministry said in its letter.
“All states/UTs are therefore requested to organize collection of COVID-19 case samples by using the services of ENT specialists and residents,” it said.
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The Health ministry has also asked the states and union Tterritories to issue necessary instructions to the medical institutions to ensure action on these lines so that such samples are taken professionally.
“All medical colleges may be instructed to get in touch with state governments to offer their services. It is requested that necessary action in this regard may be taken urgently under report to this ministry,” the letter stated.
The death toll due to COVID-19 in India rose to 273 and the number of cases surged to 8,356, according to the Union Health Ministry.