In the wake of a possible third wave of COVID-19, Karnataka has revised its testing strategy. The daily target has been fixed at 1.75 lakh for the State, with special focus on testing children.
So far, the number of tests ranged from 1.20 lakh to 1.50 lakh per day.
According to a circular issued by Arundathi Chandrashekar, State Mission Director, National Health Mission, 70% of the daily tests should be using the RT-PCR method, considered the gold standard with negligible chances of a false report.
“As part of this revised strategy, the focus should be on the 0-19 age group. At least 10% of the daily tests should be focussed on this category,” the circular issued on Wednesday stated.
“To monitor the spread of infection in rural areas, 50% of the total tests should be done in remote peripheral areas of every taluk. In villages and towns, where the positivity rate is less than 5%, testing of asymptomatic cases will be done through pooled sampling. Besides, for every positive case detected, at least 15 primary and household contacts should be tested,” the circular states.
On Wednesday, as many as 1,95,966 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, including 1,60,463 RT-PCR tests. With this, the total number of tests rose to 4,24,58,269. On Tuesday too, testing was over 1.90 lakh.
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