KOHAT: The costly PCR machine provided by the provincial government to the KDA Teaching Hospital in July for conducting Covid-19 tests across the Kohat division could not be made functional till date due to non-provision of the critical RNA extractor kit, sources said on Tuesday.

Nor had the government appointed a pathologist to operate the machine, they added. They said RNA kit was a small but critical part of the PCR machine, which gave over 90 results at a time.

Dr Afzal, in-charge of the laboratory and the PCR machine, told Dawn on contact that the whole Covid-19 system directly came under the control of the director general health, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the process of making the machine work with his validation was underway.

He complained that a special room had been constructed for the machine, but it lacked furniture and other necessary tools.

However, the sources said the lab in-charge had been provided with manpower from the district health offices in Karak and Kohat for running the machine smoothly, but he returned them. Similarly, they said Dr Afzal was not confident in how to conduct the tests and get their results, therefore, he was making excuses of getting approval of the DG health for running the machine, and staff shortage.

KDA hospital’s deputy medical superintendent human resource Dr Hashim Khan told Dawn that the information about unavailability of the critical parts of the PCR machine was correct. He said the hospital’s administration had been asking the provincial health department to provide the RNA kit, but to no avail.

He said they had been forced to conduct the tests manually which took extra time than usual.

LAID TO REST: The army captain, who embraced martyrdom in Shakai area of North Waziristan tribal district, was laid to rest in Khushalabad area of Lachi tehsil with full military honour on Tuesday.

The martyred Captain Abdullah died when terrorists opened fire at a vehicle of the security forces during the night patrol. He was 23.

Army officials and elders of the area attended the funeral prayers and laid floral wreaths on his coffin and grave.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2020