The State government has handed over 50,000 rapid antigen testing kits to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to be used in primary health centres (PHCs) and urban primary health centres (UPHCs) that are functioning as fever clinics in Bengaluru Urban district limits.
Senior officials told The Hindu that the kits will help determine if a person has COVID-19 within 30 minutes. The tests will be done on those with symptoms where urgent medical intervention is required. “The objective is to immediately segregate COVID-19 patients from others, especially symptomatic cases, so that the spread can be contained,” an official said.
In a tweet, BBMP Commissioner B.H. Anil Kumar said priority on using the test kits would be for persons with Influenza like Illness and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection from containment zones, those who have returned from abroad, police personnel and medical professionals, cancer/ HIV/ leprosy patients, those undergoing dialysis, and patients with low immunity, among others.
PHCs and UPHCs have been directed to upload all results on the ICMR portal, officials said, and added that a meeting had been scheduled on Thursday to discuss strategies and implementation of testing with the kits.
On uploading of real-time information on net availability of beds in both government and private hospitals, the IT team at the State war room and BBMP have been asked to work out the technical issues. Hospitals have been directed to update the state of COVID-19 patients admitted, discharged, deaths, and net availability of beds to the BBMP Commissioner.
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