Priority to Covid-19 tests: Suresh Kumar

District In-charge Minister S Suresh Kumar on Wednesday said that it is decided to concentrate more on persons suffering from fever, cough, common cold, Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illnesses (SARI) in the district.

The minister was addressing reporters after holding a discussion with people’s representatives and officials about containing Covid-19.

The district has a total of 2,670 ILI and 63 SARI cases. There are 32,405 persons in the district, who can easily be infected by the virus and all such persons will be tested for Covid, he said.

The minister assured of taking measures to provide Covid test report within 48 hours after the samples are collected.

The minister said, “In order to speed up the testing process, a total of 1,000 antigen kits are supplied to the district. With the help of the kits, the virus can be detected in a short span of time. More number of kits will be supplied to the district shortly, he said.

The kits will be used to test the persons above 70 years of age and the people suffering from cancer, SARI, ILI, pregnant woman and persons undergoing dialysis.

The minister said, “There are complaints that the staff members at Covid hospitals are not caring for the patients. The patients must be given utmost care and no staff must discriminate them. Rather, they should instil confidence and should provide personal care.”

The rate of recovery is 58% in the district and the rate of active cases is 38%. With three deaths, the death rate is 1.6%.

MLAs R Narendra, C S Niranjan Kumar and N Mahesh, Deputy Commissioner M R Ravi and Superintendent of Police Divya Sara Thomas were present.