Pvt labs to be roped in for tests as Covid tally jumps to 16,000

Coimbatore: A day after the Covid-19 cases zoomed past the 15,000-mark in the district, the tally crossed the 16,000-mark on Tuesday, when it recorded 581 new cases. The district’s Covid-19 count now stands at 16,075, of which 3,904 are active cases.
At least 392 patients were discharged from the facilities they were undergoing treatment in the day. So far, 11,861 Covid-19 patients have recovered in the district.
The Covid-19 toll, meanwhile, rose to 310 with the state including two more deaths that occurred in the district in the bulletin.
The new cases were spread across Peelamedu (more than 25), Vilankurichi (21), Kuniyamuthur (6), Race Course Road (4), Selvapuram (13) Telungupalayam (7) and Telungu Street (2), among other areas.
With the number of fresh cases now hitting almost 600 a day, officials seem to have realized the need to increase the number of people being tested for Covid-19 to at least 6,000 a day to keep the positivity rate at 10%.
To ensure that the government laboratories are not overburdened, the health department and district administration are now trying to rope in private labs to test samples collected by them. Health department officials had on Monday held talks with representatives of private laboratories in this regard.
An official said they didn’t want to overburden the labs at the ESI Hospital and the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital. The government hospitals together could test around 4,500 samples a day.
“We are trying to understand if we could place a cap on the number of government-collected samples that private laboratories could test and if the government can directly pay for the same rather than making them apply for insurance and reimbursement. The private laboratories can also directly submit their documents and reimbursement requests through health department headquarters in Chennai,” the official said.
Dr G Ramesh Kumar, deputy director of public health, said all test results have to be issued within 24 hours of sample collection.
Municipal administration minister S P Velumani also convened a meeting at the district collectorate to review the situation. He ordered officials to take all measures to bring down the curve in 15 days. He asked them to implement stricter containment measures on streets with more than three cases, ensure guidelines were followed by people in home quarantine to protect other family members from infection and test all the people, who they come across at fever camps and door-to-door surveillance, with flu-like symptoms for Covid-19.
Fever camps would be ramped up at Covid-19 hotspots of Gandhipuram, Puliyakulam and Selvapuram.
On his part, district collector K Rajamani met managements of private labs and principals of nursing colleges. Labs were ordered to test all patients with flu-like symptoms and announce results within 12 hours. Labs were also ordered to inform the city corporation or local health body immediately about the positive cases.