Grappling with a sharp spike in COVID-19 cases, the State government is all set to start rapid antigen tests from next week.
The government had placed orders for one lakh test kits and the consignment will arrive by Friday, said C.N. Manjunath, nodal officer for labs and testing in the State’s COVID-19 task force.
Addressing presspersons along with Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar on Wednesday, Dr. Manjunath said health authorities will use the kits in mobile ambulances, fever clinics and door-to-door surveys to identify positive patients immediately.
“The test is recommended for all symptomatic COVID-19 suspects and asymptomatic high-risk contacts with co-morbidities. As the results will be available within 10 minutes, it will accelerate the process of identifying positive cases. We are placing orders for two lakh more kits as the plan is to ramp up testing to nearly 30,000 samples a day in the next 10 days,” he said.
As of now, the State is testing an average of 18,000 samples a day and has a backlog of over 15,000 samples.
Appealing to all private hospitals to start conducting antigen tests, Dr. Manjunath said this will avoid patients running from one hospital to another for want of a COVID-19 test.
“As it costs just ₹450, the hospitals can test every patient with the rapid antigen kits and start treatment depending on the results,” he said.
2,062 cases, 54 deaths
Meanwhile, Karnataka on Wednesday reported 2,062 new cases and 54 deaths, the highest so far on a single day. With this, the total number of positive cases touched 28,877 and the death toll rose to 470. This is apart from four non-COVID-19 deaths.
Benagluru Urban continued to witness rise in cases with 1,148 new cases. With 778 patients discharged, the total recoveries touched 11,876. Of the 16,527 active cases, 452 patients are being monitored in the ICU, while the condition of remaining is stable. While Bengaluru Urban reported 24 deaths, Dharwad reported seven and Ballari four, Hassan and Raichur reported three each. Two deaths each have been reported from Chickballapur, Tumakuru, Mysuru, and Vijayapura, while Kalaburagi, Bidar, Dakshina Kannada, Bengaluru Rural, and Chikkamagalur reported one each.
Robots in care centre for patient monitoring
The State government will soon introduce robots in COVID care centre at Bengaluru International Exhibition Centre for remote patient monitoring by specialists.
“Doctors can interact with patients, and treat and monitor their progress from a distance. The robots will do the daily rounds just as doctors do in wards. This will help provide high quality care while also ensuring safety of healthcare workers and patients,” C.N. Manjunath, nodal officer for labs and testing, said, adding that robots will be added in the ICU of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences soon.
