Bhubaneswar Covid-19 testing results will be uploaded on ICMR portal on real time basis

The Covid-19 test results coming from various testing centres across Bhubaneswar will be uploaded on the ICMR portal in real time basis for quick contact tracing, an official said.

Instruction in this regard has been issued by Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary, the official said.

Chairing a meeting of all the city-based Covid testing agencies on Tuesday for smooth testing and reporting, the BMC Commissioner ordered that the data be uploaded on the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) portal - timely in a phase-wise manner from Thursday.

While nearly 1,600 Covid tests are currently being done at different testing centres across the state capital, getting reports on time and tracing the contacts have become the need of the hour. Representatives of 11 testing centres were present at the meeting, an official statement said.

Among others, the meeting also discussed issues pertaining to compulsory registration (Control and Regulation Act-1990), trained technicians, pricing of tests and uploading to ICMR portal.

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All cases testing positive from city-based health-care institutions, but from other districts, will be uploaded in the ICMR portal, but against the respective districts so that such cases are not missed out.

Given the nature of Covid-19 infection, timely management of cases is very crucial to contain the infection. Therefore, a timely intimation of all such cases is very important. For reporting of these cases the data in the prescribed format as used for updating in ICMR portal may also be sent to BMC directly, it said.

Abstract of all kinds of samples tested - RT-PCR, Antigen and True-NAAT - should be given in prescribed format by 7 pm, it said.

Without the availability of sample referral form (SRF) no test samples should be processed, stand-alone testing laboratories may be tagged with some hospitals/samples collection centres for generating SRFs. However, testing should be strictly subjected to availability of the SRFs only.