COVID-19 Tests Cross 2.5 Lakh In Bhubaneswar Municipal Areas

Bhubaneswar: The tests for COVID-19 in the city limits under Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) crossed 2.5 lakh mark by Tuesday night.

The BMC launched the testing for COVID-19 in March and by September 29, the number reached 2,54,160 out of which 77,817 tests were done under RT-PCR, 86,462 under Rapid Antigen, 627 under TruNaat and 5,042 underwent antibody tests to know the spread within the community.

While 2,15,003 persons have undergone testing in the government facilities, the rest tested in the private facilities. In the last seven days, 5,652, 4,795, 5,064, 4,995, 3,945, 5,087 and 5,162 tests were conducted everyday at various centres across the Capital City, according to a BMC release.

While the testing numbers remain high, the private and government facilities are uploading the data on day-to-day basis on the portal of the Regional Medical Research Centre of Indian Council of Medical Research so that it can be referred to by the contact tracing unit of BMC COVID-19 Control Room.

Besides, in order to update the people on the COVID-19 awareness and sensitising them on wearing masks, regular washing of hands, keeping hygiene, physical distancing and avoiding crowding at market places, the civic body has started an IEC campaign through print, electronic and social media, vehicles with public announcement system and community-level meetings.