GUJRAT: A latest laboratory for the tests of Covid-19 patients will be established in Gujrat for which a place in Kharian Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) hospital has been selected.

Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has already approved the summary for the establishment of such a lab in Gujrat district as well as in Sialkot, Sargodha and Rahim Yar Khan districts. The approval has been given on the insistence of PML-Q MNA Chaudhry Moonis Elahi and Gujrat Deputy Commissioner Dr Khurram Shahzad.

Gujrat has been an epicenter of Covid-19 in the region due to a large number of expatriates belonging to it. The first three cases followed by around 40 more were of expats who returned from Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany and other countries to Gujrat that caused further spread of the disease to their close contacts in family and friends.

An official team had already paid a visit to the Kharian THQ hospital to examine the available space and location for the lab.

Official sources in the local administration said the Kharian lab would also cater to the needs of two neighbouring districts of Jhelum and Mandi Bahauddin that are hardly 20 and 40 kilometers away from the hospital.

Earlier, such a lab had been set up by the Punjab Health Department at the Wazirabad THQ hospital which is functional now. Initially, it was said that the Wazirabad lab would facilitate the patients requiring Covid-19 tests from neighbouring districts of Gujranwala but official sources said the lab had capacity issues due to which it could only conduct around 100 tests daily.

Wazirabad’s lab has the technical staff only for the one shift due to which it can conduct 100 tests daily, said a senior administrative officer. He said the labs in Lahore and Islamabad had been conducting around 1,500 to 2,000 tests daily but in three shifts.

GUNNED DOWN: A 70-year-old man was gunned down by two armed men in Kharian’s Islamabad locality on the night between Saturday and Sunday.

Muhammad Sadiq had been living with his wife in their house as their children were settled in the UK. Robbers entered the house and shot dead Muhammad Sadiq.

The Kharian Saddar police registered a case against unidentified suspects under section 302 of PPC.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2020