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State starts massive tests targeting one lakh samples in three days

Ranchi: With the introduction of rapid antigen testing kits and the opening of new labs in Hazaribag and Palamu Medical Colleges, the state government is planning to test more than one lakh people in a span of three days.

Talking to TOI on Friday, state health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni said, “We have set a target of testing one lakh persons across the state in the next three days to get an overview of the spread of infection.

The large-scale testing will be conducted on TrueNsat machines provided to each district, rapid antigen testing kits as well as through our six labs which are conducting RT-PCR tests.”

As per health department sources, state health department is conducting mass scale testing in order to complete testing of primary and secondary contacts of positive patients and to cover people in high risk groups. The mass testing is also aimed at identifying region wise case load of covid-19 so that appropriate planning can be done to handle the situation.

In order to achieve target of one lakh testing health department has directed the districts to organise special testing camps in their respective districts. “As part of special testing drive we have organised sample collection at Ranchi Municipal Corporation, Police headquarters, and other places with higher footfall on Friday. It will continue on Saturday too at new locations and till now we have collected 1500 samples in a day,” said Ashish Kumar, consultant with Ranchi civil surgeon office. Similar testing drives have been organised in other districts too.

Meanwhile officials of Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) said that they are trying to collect and test as many samples as they could so that they can achieve the target. “But even if we fall short of 1 Lakh mark we will continue the exercise with full vigour to test maximum number of persons. As per my calculation we will be able to test around 60k persons in three days between Friday to Sunday,” said a senior IDSP official.

Dr Rakesh Dayal, nodal officer for covid-19 at state health directorate said: “The mass testing will help us in identifying people in higher risk group. Apart from that it will also provide us with data on region wise case load so that we can proceed with proper planning for containing the infection.”

On the mechanism to increase tests Dayal said “We have increased the number of Truenat machines to 87 from around 23 and with inauguration of testing facilities at Palamu and Hazaribagh medical colleges the total number of RT-PCR labs have gone up to six.”

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