We will conduct 10,000 tests a day: Karnataka minister

ManuAiyappa Kanathanda | TNN | Apr 19, 2020, 09:41 IST

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BENGALURU: Efforts are underway to scale up testing to 10,000 checks a day in Karnataka and the government will shift its focus from symptomsbased diagnosis to preventive one, education minister S Suresh Kumar told STOI in an interview. He is the state spokesperson for developments in the Covid-19 battle.
Coronavirusinfections, which seemed to be under control last week, started multiplying this week. Is this a worry?
Defi nitely not. Most new cases are primary or secondary contacts of Covid-19 patients. Measures are in place to test all contacts and also people with severe acute respiratory infection, infl uenza-like illness and fever. Karnataka is well-prepared to combat the spread of the virus.
Government wants to ease lockdown in places where infections have not occurred. Does it have a contingency plan if things go wrong?
That’s a risk the government is taking to revive the economy. Restrictions will be eased in phases, and if anything goes wrong, we can withdraw relaxations
Bengaluru has flattened the Covid-19 curve, but other districts are struggling.
The fresh cases in most districts are primary or secondary contacts. In Vijayapura, for instance, 17 confi rmed cases are from two families and in Mysuru, the Jubilant factory cluster accounts for over 50 cases. In some districts, cases are related to the Tablighi Jamaat meet.
Some experts think that Karnataka’s numbers are not accurate as not enough tests have been conducted.
That’s not true. Enough tests are being conducted. Initially, we started with 500 tests per day and today, we are conducting over 2,000 per day. To date, 15,087 tests have been completed, and we now plan to do 8,000-10,000 a day by covering people with infl uenza-like symptoms.
Why areprivate labs being denied nod to conduct tests?
All ICMR-approved private labs can conduct tests.
Is there a provision to cancel board exams?
We are waiting for this crisis to pass. Board exams cannot be annulled. Students also don’t favour cancellation as exams are an important milestone in their life.