JOIN USBBMP to double testing to reduce Covid-19 deaths
The civic body has decided to increase its testing capacity to 20,000 to control the Covid-19 outbreak and reduce the death rate.
Speaking at the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council meeting held via video conferencing, commissioner N Manjunath Prasad said the civic body is conducting 6,000 Rapid Antigen Tests and RT/PCR tests through primary health centres and mobile units.
If the 4,000 tests conducted by private hospitals were included, there are 10,000 tests conducted in the city every day, the commissioner added.
Wanting to control the disease and to bring down deaths, the civic body will ramp-up the daily tests to 20,000 by next week, he said, urging people not to panic since intense testing will spike the number of cases. “The faster we identify the infected people and isolate them, the sooner the pandemic will come under control,” Prasad said.
Ward and booth-level committees will conduct house-to-house surveys once in ten days.
They will identify people with covid symptoms and those facing health issues, get them tested and provide treatment. This will cut down the alarming number of deaths in the city. “If identified and treated early, the patients have more chances of survival,” Prasad said.