Coimbatore Corporation, in association with the Young Indians and the Confederation of Indian Industry, on Monday opened a kiosk at the Primary Health Centre in Podanur to collect swab samples from members of the public.
The Rotary Coimbatore Central has sponsored the kiosk worth ₹ 1.20 lakh.
According to sources in the Corporation, the person sitting inside the kiosk would be able to collect swab samples from persons referred to by the Coimbatore Corporation medical officers, while maintaining safety precautions.
Senthilkumar Raju, a doctor and member of the Young Indians team that built the kiosk, said the person collecting the samples could stay inside the kiosk, which had positive airway pressure pump to blow the air out, an air handling unit with heap filter, an audio system with mike to communicate with persons giving samples and many such features. And the person inside the kiosk need not wear cover-all, a big relief, particularly during summer, he said.
Besides, the Corporation need not send its teams with four of five person each to various locations to lift samples, which it had been doing thus far, since the spread of the COVID-19 in the city.
Now the Corporation would send only those persons who it found with influenza like illness or severe acute respiratory infection to the kiosk to give samples to check if they were COVID-19 positive or otherwise.
They added that the Corporation had proposed to install similar kiosks in other parts of the city and encouraged social service organisations and corporate companies to sponsor the kiosks.
Dr. Raju, who had worked with fellow Young Indians Aishwarya Arjun and Shrikumaravelu S., said the Corporation could use the kiosk even after the COVID-19 period, for lifting samples for other communicable diseases.
