The State government is adding 10 lakh rapid antigen detection tests as well as around 18 lakh RT PCR tests to ramp up testing in the State in the coming days. The State’s COVID-19 Task Force met on Friday and decided to procure more tests.
C.N. Manjunath, director of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, and nodal officer for labs and testing in the task force, said previously 15 lakh rapid antigen tests had been procured.
“The number of tests have been ramped up now. On Thursday, nearly 56,000 tests were conducted. The idea is to conduct 60,000 to 75,000 tests a day. The government is looking at ordering enough tests to last another 40 days, but, based on the requirement, more may be ordered,” he added.
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The number of tests has been between 20,000 and 49,000 per day since August 1. To counter the dip in numbers during the weekend, the government is planning to stagger the fumigation process for labs.
As on Friday, 19,38,954 tests had been conducted overall. The number of rapid antigen tests were 4,64,286 while RT PCR and others were 14,74,668