DH Reality Check | Contrary to BBMP's announcement, no random Covid testing in Bengaluru's public places

Staff at Magadi Road PHC said they received no specific order to conduct random testing in public places

While the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had announced plans to randomly conduct Covid tests in crowded public places, a reality check by DH over two days shows that no such testing is happening currently.

Speaking to DH, Dr Siddappaji and Dr Manoranjan, health officers of RR Nagar and West zones respectively of Bengaluru, said that random testing was being done in crowded public places. This is supposed to be done by the swab collectors BBMP recently appointed -- one each at the 141 Primarily Health Centres (PHCs) -- on contract basis. But visits to five PHCs, including those in these two zones, showed that swabs were being collected only from the PHC visitors and not from public places.

The focus was on swab collection of individuals who visit the PHC with symptoms, said Dr Sudha, medical officer at Govindaraja Nagar PHC.

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Dr Rajendra, in-charge of six PHCs in Govindaraja Nagar constituency, said that one swab collector each was appointed in the six PHCs on January 5. “They collect swabs of ILI/SARI patients as well as high-risk groups like those with BP, who come to the PHC.”

Staff at Magadi Road PHC told DH they received no specific order to conduct random testing in public places.

At Koramangala PHC, ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists) go door-to-door collecting information about symptomatic people. The swab collector here, appointed on December 27, usually focuses on PHC visitors, but collects swabs once a week from the symptomatic people identified by the ASHAs. At Kodihalli PHC, ASHAs are only going out in the community to create awareness, and no swab collection is happening from the community.

Dr Trilok Chandra, Special Commissioner (Health) at BBMP, said that the Palike has been meeting the testing target of 5,000 on most days, by only testing symptomatic patients coming into PHCs and hospitals. "Our primary focus is only ILI/SARI cases, and there are enough patients coming into the PHCs with this. Testing will be done in public places only if needed," he said.