Coronavirus testing comes to doorstep in Bengaluru

A lab worker with a rapid antigen kit walks past a mobile testing van in Bengaluru on Friday. DH Photo/BH Shivakumar

Mobile antigen testing vans will now come to the doorstep of citizens who request for Covid-19 testing in Bengaluru.

Senior citizens, symptomatic primary contacts and those who are co-morbid can use zone-wise helplines to call the mobile teams which will collect samples. If found negative, the nasal and throat swabs will be transported to the nearest facility for RT-PCR testing.

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Dr G K Suresh, City Programme Management Officer, National Urban Health Mission, BBMP, told DH, “One mobile testing van will be stationed in each zone to attend to symptomatic people. It could also be a containment zone where people can’t travel outside the area. If they’re symptomatic, we will send the vehicle there.”

Priyanka Franicis, an IAS officer who is in-charge of sample collection, testing and lab utilisation team of BBMP, said the van will have a team of three lab technicians.

Sheela Gowda, a lab technician with Gandhigrama health centre, Malleswaram, told DH, “Since we cannot collect swabs in PPE suits in the van, we will alight from the vehicle, set up a table and take nasal swabs first. The antigen test takes 30 minutes. If the result is negative, we will take the throat swab too and send it for PCR testing.”

An operator at the Yelahanka helpline said she received 18 calls on Friday.