In the wake of several patients without any contact or travel history testing positive, Deputy Commissioners of 10 districts that have not recorded cases of COVID-19 have been told to start random testing of patients with severe acute respiratory infection and influenza-like illness symptoms from Saturday.
Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar issued the orders on Friday evening and said that at least 100 samples should be tested every day till April 19 and after that 50 samples per day should be tested.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, who held discussions with public health experts and senior doctors from the private and government sector, told presspersons that patients have been reporting to hospitals on an average four days after developing symptoms. “Whoever develops symptoms should first go to fever clinics and if required to bigger hospitals as soon as they develop symptoms. The experts have opined that this will help in reducing morbidity and mortality,” the Chief Minister said.
Two labs in every district
Following Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines, the government has decided to set up two laboratories in each district and one laboratory each in medical colleges of the State for swift testing and collection of samples of persons infected with the disease. Overall, the State will get 10 more labs by the end of April.
“Earlier we used to do 500 tests per day. Now we are doing 2,000 tests and our testing rate is second highest after Kerala in the country,” the Chief Minister said, and added that the State was gearing up to test an increased number of patients after the lockdown gets relaxed.
It was decided to issue guidelines to companies that would start working after relaxing lockdown from April 20.
The Chief Minister said another meeting with experts would be held on April 21 after which the future course of action would be decided.
Plasma therapy
Experts at the meeting also urged the Chief Minister to expedite the process of starting plasma therapy for treating COVID-19 patients in the ICU. Under this, plasma from recovered patients can be used to treat critically ill positive patients.
Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, said the government had written to the ICMR and Drug Controller General of India seeking their approval for starting plasma therapy in all medical colleges of the State. “We are awaiting their approval,” he said.
“The number of positive cases in the State are increasing by the day as we are testing all secondary contacts. If we detect early, we can provide them timely treatment,” he said.
“Besides, we will also monitor the health of those in our database, including those having non-communicable diseases, tuberculosis, HIV and those above the age of 60,” he added.
Centre allots 12,400 rapid anitbody test strips to State
While the State had placed an order of one lakh rapid antibody testing strips from China, it is as of now getting only 12,400 strips, said Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar on Friday.
While the Health Department has issued guidelines on pooled samples and a circular for allocating 66,000 rapid antibody-based blood test kits for COVID-19, the Centre has allocated 12,400 strips of the 6.5 lakh consignment that it received from China on Friday.
According to the circular, 34,000 strips will be allocated to green districts where no cases have been reported so far. Every district will get 3,300 kits. Totally 1,00,000 test kits have been ordered for 30 districts in the State, stated the circular.
