Coronavirus sample testing rate slashed; government to buy 4 lakh antigen kits

The Covid-19 Task Force on Tuesday decided to slash the rates for sample testing while approving measures to strengthen infrastructure to deal with the pandemic.

The price for testing samples sent by the government to private labs will now be Rs 2,000 instead of Rs 2,250. A regular patient walking into a private lab with a prescription will have to pay Rs 3,000 in place of Rs 4,500.

“We have approved procuring four lakh rapid antigen testing kits. We had already approved one lakh. So, totally, we will procure five lakh kits. They will be mainly used in Bengaluru,” Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar said, adding that it was also decided to increase the RT-PCR and RNA extractor testing capacity at government medical colleges. “In one day, about 7,000-8,000 more RT-PCR tests can be done,” he said.

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In addition, oxygen facilities will be provided to 4,736 beds at the 17 government medical colleges.

The task force also approved the procurement of 35 lakh PPE kits. “This is based on a needs assessment done by the Health department for Covid Care Centres, booth-level committees, task force members, primary health centres and so on. Totally, 35 lakh PPE kits are needed till September-end,” Sudhakar said.

“Also, we approved 2.5 lakh N-95 masks and PPE kits to be given to the 17 government medical colleges, tertiary and superspeciality hospitals under the medical education department.”

In all, Sudhakar said the task force approved spending about Rs 500 crore to fight the pandemic.

Supply of Covid-19 antiviral drug Remdesivir to private hospitals will be regulated by the government to check black marketing and hoarding, he added. The drug is currently available in government hospitals.