To strengthen its fight against Covid, the Punjab government has decided to set up four new testing laboratories, with priority appointment of the 131 essential staff needed for these labs.The Cabinet also cleared the proposal of Medical Education & Research Department to create and fill up four posts of Assistant Professor (Microbiology) on adhoc basis in these four viral testing laboratories.The state cabinet, at its meeting today under Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, gave the go-ahead to setting up the new labs in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Mohali, to help scale up the testing capacity from the current 9000 a day, in the three Government Medical Colleges at Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot, to 13000 tests per day.The new laboratories would be established in Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana; Punjab State Forensic Sciences Laboratory, Mohali; Northern Regional Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory, Jalandhar; and Punjab Biotechnology Incubator, Mohali.All the appointments will be made through outsourcing from Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, said an official spokesperson. The expenditure of Rs 17.46 lakh per month to be incurred against the 131 staff appointments and Rs 3.06 lakh per month against the ad-hoc Assistant Professor posts would be met from the State Disaster Response Fund. The 131 staff positions positions would include Research Scientists (Non-Medical), Research Assistants, Lab Technicians, Data Entry Operators, Lab Attendants and Sweepers.Meanwhile, the Cabinet has also given the nod to re-employment of the 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, Patiala, after their retirement at 62 years. While re-employment will be up to the age of 70 years for Medical/Ayurvedic teachers, for Dental faculty, it will be till the age of 65.The step would be helpful in meeting the scarcity of Medical, Dental, Ayurvedic teaching faculty, besides keeping the seats of PG courses intact as per the norms of Medical Council of India/Dental Council of India and the Central Council of Indian Medicine.