Punjab to launch pilot project for COVID-19 rapid antigen testing

Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], July 3 : Punjab government has given the go-ahead to launch a pilot project for COVID-19 rapid antigen testing from the coming week.
A state government release said on Friday that on successful completion of the pilot rapid antigen project 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.
A minimum of 1,000 tests will be done in the pilot project.
"The state government will procure rapid antigen testing kits to scale up its COVID-19 testing capacity. With positivity rate of just 2 per cent, Punjab is already conducting 242 tests/million/day as part of its comprehensive strategy to check further spread of the pandemic," the release said.
The release said that e-registration will be done to ensure strict monitoring of thousands of people coming from the high-risk NCR region every day.
"Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has said that no vehicle should be allowed to enter Punjab without a stringent monitoring mechanism in place. Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan assured the Chief Minister that strict monitoring would be ensured of all entrants, with private players being roped in to ensure implementation of home quarantine with phone-based monitoring and regular visits," the release said.
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, should be there on the vehicle windscreen.