Mass screening, random sampling to go up

TNN | Apr 24, 2020, 04:00 IST

Warriors stand firm

Varanasi: The district administration has decided to intensify the screening of people in city areas by collecting over 1,000 samples randomly in coming four-five days. The mass screening in city had taken a backseat since the focus had shifted on covering the population in hotspots and buffer zones.
District magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma told TOI on Thursday, “There are four hotspots in the city and the population there and in the buffer zones is huge. They are in the centre of the city and densely populated, so we do not know whether there will be relaxation in curbs in city area after May 3. Ensuring social distancing in dense population is a tough task.”
“On the other hand, relaxations are more likely in rural belts, hence we decided to deploy more teams in rural areas to accelerate the pace of screening of people in villages,” he added.
The district administration has screened around two lakh population so far.
Sharma said 1,000 samples are being collected randomly in rural belt and the screening process there will be completed in coming 4-5 days.
He said reports of around 450 samples collected from city areas and sent to BHU laboratory are still pending.
“Completion of screening process in rural belts will help in intensifying the drive in urban areas,” he added.