COVID-19 testing target for Mysuru increased from 3,000 to 5,000 per day

Random testing of shopkeepers, salespersons, students, teachers to be done in the coming days

The daily target for collection of samples for COVID-19 testing in Mysuru district has been increased from the present 3,000 to 5,000.

Mysuru District Health Officer K.H. Prasad told The Hindu that the health personnel will carry out random testing of shopkeepers and salespersons at malls and markets, staff of hotels and restaurants, students, teachers and other staff in colleges among others in the coming days.

The increase in daily testing target is part of the State Government’s decision to augment the surveillance by revising the daily target for the State in view of the clusters of COVID-19 cases reported in different parts of Karnataka including Mysuru.

More than 60 students from two different nursing colleges in Mysuru had tested positive about a week ago.

Officials from the Health Department, who suspected the infection to have spread from students from bordering States studying in the nursing colleges of Mysuru, said the students, who had shown an RT-PCR negative report while entering the State, had tested positive about 15 days later while in Mysuru.

Though RT-PCR that is less than 72 hours old has to be produced at the time of entering the State, the officials said the incubation period for COVID-19 stretches upto one or two weeks, which may the reason for the students to test positive about a fortnight after entering the State.

Meanwhile, another official said the Health Department will be targeting all the 12 nursing colleges Mysuru and has already begun collecting samples from the students of the colleges. The nursing colleges have a lot of students from bordering States, the official said.

Also, apart from continuing with the targeted testing of cases of ILI (Influenza-like Illness), SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Infection), contacts of positive cases and high-risk groups, the Health Department officials have been asked to conduct fortnightly random testing of selected groups like students and teachers of colleges and high schools, staff of hotels and restaurants, shopkeepers of malls and markets, catering staff and door delivery personnel, factory personnel, office-goers, service staff in pubs and bars, attendants in cinema halls and multiplexes, besides others who are in crowds by vocation.

The Government has also asked the officials to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the samples should be from the district headquarters and the rest from the rural areas, ensuring 10 per cent of the samples are taken from children. The officials have also been asked to ensure that atleast 5 per cent of the children in schools are tested every week to assess their sfety.