Lack of labs and staff slows tests in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: Officials say Bengaluru must conduct at least 15,000 Covid-19 tests daily, up from the present 8,500 (including RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests) if the virus must be reined in. But they admit the city’s 10 government and 41 private labs and 408 swab collection centres are already overwhelmed.
According to senior IAS officers in charge of the eight zones and nodal officers, there is a severe shortage of swab collectors, lab technicians and RT-PCR and rapid antigen kits. “The labs are overburdened with samples from the district as well, delaying the Bengaluru cases. We’ve asked the government to increase the number of labs,” BBMP commissioner N Manjunath Prasad said.
Senior bureaucrats alleged that money needed to fight the pandemic is tied up with corporators and MLAs. According to one zonal team, the entire Rs 20 lakh per ward, or Rs 3.6 crore for each zone allocated to fight against Covid-19, is stuck with corporators or the local MLAs.
Shortage of testing kits a worry for state
The issue of staff shortage figured at the CM’s review meeting on Wednesday. Dr R Vishal, the team leader for Rajarajeshwari Nagar, said his zone is conducting 150 to 160 tests a day and just 50-60 in places where staff shortage is acute.
Official sources said the BBMP commissioner assured the government that the civic body would ramp up manpower from existing 11,000 trained personnel to 20,000 in the next one week.
The bigger concern is the lack of testing kits. Most zonal team officials TOI spoke to said the state’s stocks of rapid antigen and RT-PCR kits are nearly exhausted.
When the pandemic broke, the government provided up to 2,500 test kits to every zone and a total of 20,000 for Bengaluru Urban. Now, as the number of cases increase, Bengaluru is severely short of test kits. In Bommanahalli, all 1,800 test kits have been used up.
Order placed for 2.5L kits
As per government estimates, the 198 wards in Bengaluru require 1.5 lakh rapid antigen test kits for getting quick results. “When the zonal teams approached the government, they were told the kits would be supplied. But there is no timeline on the delivery,” said one government official privy to the meetings.
CMO sources said the state government has placed order for 2.5 lakh test kits and are awaiting their delivery.