COVID Testing Crosses 1 Lakh-Mark In Odisha Capital

Bhubaneswar: Tests for COVID-19 in Odisha capital have crossed 1 lakh-mark. With 2,812 tests being done yesterday and 2,642 the day before, the city has so far conducted 1,04,390 tests both by the Government and private facilities.

While the Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests count for 52,205, the Rapid Antigen Tests count for 21,445 and TrueNAT tests are 353 in numbers. On the other hand, antibody tests were done on 5,042 persons to look for the presence of antibodies, which are specific proteins made in response to infections.

Of all these tests, while 79,042 tests are done at Government facilities and 25,348 tests were conducted at private centres across the city within this time period.

The rapid rise in COVID-19 tests among people has become possible with the opening of the Rapid Antigen Test centres at 16 health-care centres across the city. In this process under the collaborative effort of the Health and Family Welfare Department and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), 12 Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHCs) and four Urban Community Health Centres (UCHCs) are roped in to do the testing. The testing is available from 8 am to 2 pm at these centres.

While the 12 UPHCs include Niladri Vihar, Pokhariput, Saheed Nagar, Unit III, Unit-VIII, Unit IX, IRC Village, Ghatikia, Kalpana Square, Brahmeshwar Patna, Kapilaprasad and Chandrasekharpur, the UCHCs are Dumduma, Patia, Unit IV and Municipality Hospital in Old Town area.

The mobile testing van has also contributed in taking the testing figures to this level as it is jointly managed by Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar and BMC. Capital Hospital has contributed the most as there are 14 teams working to facilitate it. While 10 mobile teams of the largest Government hospital of the city are going to different places across Bhubaneswar city to conduct tests, three teams remain there to manage the in-house requirements and one team goes with the mobile testing van, which started on August 2. A single team in-charge of testing includes two to three teachers, two laboratory technicians, one data entry operator and one sanitation worker.