To boost the fight against Covid-19, the Punjab government, here on Monday, decided to set up four testing laboratories and appoint 131 essential staff at these labs on the priority basis.
The cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, also cleared the Medical Education and Research Department's proposal to create and fill four posts of Assistant Professor (Microbiology) on the ad hoc basis in these laboratories.
The labs will help scale up the capacity of three Government Medical Colleges in Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot to 13,000 tests a day from 9,000 a day.
The laboratories will be set up at the Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University in Ludhiana, the Punjab State Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Mohali, the Northern Regional Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory in Jalandhar, and the Punjab Biotechnology Incubator in Mohali.
The appointments would be made through outsourcing from the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences in Faridkot, said an official spokesperson.
The Rs 17.46 lakh per month expenditure for the 131 staff and Rs 3.06 lakh per month for the ad hoc Assistant Professors will be met from the state Disaster Response Fund.
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The cabinet also okayed re-employment of medical, ayurvedic and dental faculty at the Government Medical Colleges and the Government Dental Colleges in Patiala and Amritsar as well as the Government Ayurvedic College in Patiala after their retirement at 62 years.
While re-employment for medical and ayurvedic teachers will be up to 70 years, for the dental faculty, it will be till 65 years.