Odisha Govt To Increase Number Of Daily COVID-19 Tests

Bhubaneswar: The state government has decided to increase the number of tests for coronavirus conducted everyday.

The number of tests that had come down to 3,500 per day last month from an average 4,000 tests in the last week of May will be raised to 6,500 tests in the state. It was decided at a high-level meeting here on Friday, according to a TNIE report.

Additional Chief Secretary of Health department PK Mohapatra said new labs will be set up in the districts of Angul, Jharsuguda, Puri, Keonjhar and Kalahandi. Besides, SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack and VIMSAR at Burla will be provided one more RTPCR machine each.

The government, which attributed the declining tests to the change in ICMR guidelines of focusing on symptomatic cases, service providers and COVID warriors, expects the symptomatic cases to go up since the door-to-door surveillance has been intensified across the state.

“The surveillance will continue till the end of this month. Accordingly, we are in the process of augmenting the facilities so that no sample is left without test beyond 48 hours of collection,” Mohapatra said.

The State has 16 Government labs and six private labs. Total 2,81,523 tests have been carried out in the state in the last four months.

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