“Now that the health care professionals may feel more secure as the sterile booth will act as a barrier between the patient and medical professional inside. It will also be helpful in making huge savings towards the expense of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), which comes to over Rs 800 per kit, including N-95 masks and goggles.

Now it’s enough for the medical professional to use just an ordinary mask and gloves as a precaution,” said Tirupur Government Hospital Dean Valli Sathyamoorthy. Currently two kiosks have been set up, one at the entrance near outpatient ward and the other at the COVID-19 ward on the hospital premises. They have been set up jointly by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the District Administration. Apart from collecting swabs, the kiosks can also be used to consult the persons on their case history and to examine them. In India; Kerala has set up such kiosks in their hospitals.

“These kiosks were built indigenously and they weren’t bought. With them, testing can be done rapidly on any number of persons. From Wednesday morning, swabs of 32 persons have been collected in these two WISK’s and sent for testing. If required, more number of WISKs will be set up depending upon the demand,” the Dean added. After testing each person, the gloves attached to the kiosk and the chair are disinfected. 

Inaugurating the kiosk, Tirupur Collector K Vijayakarthikeyan earlier said that the rapid testing kits will arrive on April 10.