Health department to tie up with RWAs to hold Covid-19 testing camps in residential societies

To ramp up Covid-19 testing in the city, the health department, along with the district administration, will hold antigen testing camps in gated societies and condominiums

To ramp up Covid-19 testing in the city, the health department, along with the district administration, will hold antigen testing camps in gated societies and condominiums in the coming weeks. Officials said that the proposal is at an initial stage and they plan to approach the residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) for coordination.

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“The plan is to conduct antigen detection tests in high-rise buildings, condominiums and gated colonies during the evening hours. The test will be conducted from 4pm to 7pm or 8pm, depending on the suggestions put forward by the RWAs,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer(CMO), Gurugram, while addressing a press meet on Friday. “We are yet to tie up with the residential societies for holding these Covid-19 testing camps in their areas,” he said.

The rapid antigen diagnostic test detects the proteins attached to the coronavirus by testing a sample collected from the nasal cavity of a patient using swabs. The test delivers result within 30 minutes.

Dhruv Bansal, media spokesperson for the DLF RWAs, called health department’s initiative an excellent move. “The RWA will coordinate with the health department in holding the testing camps in the evening. Two Covid-19 testing camps have already been organised in DLF Phase-I and Phase-2 with the help of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram(MCG). We want to conduct the camp again so that more number of people could turn up for the tests,” said Bansal.

Vijay Chopra, president, The Ivy condominium, Sector 28 said, “The health department has said that they will be conducting antigen tests of more than 150 people in our society. Dates are yet to be finalised as we are still circulating the message regarding the testing camps. The health team has already taken 51 samples from the society for the Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test this week. Out of them, 30 have tested negative and results of 21 are awaited. Next week antigen tests will be conducted on residents, estate staff and house helps.”

Testing camps are currently being conducted for rapid detection of the virus in various Covid-19 clusters across the city. Till now, more than 26,000 people in the clusters have been tested using the antigen detection kits manufactured by a South Korean company based in Manesar. Out of the 26,125 tests conducted so far, 697 had tested coronavirus positive and have been asked to isolate at home.

Yadav said that following the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) guidelines, those who tested negative for the antigen test, were asked to give oral and nasal swab samples for the RT-PCR test for final confirmation. “It was found that 280 were Covid-19 positive, out of the 25,428 people who tested negative for the antigen detection test,” said Yadav. RT-PCR is considered to be the gold standard of Covid-19 testing as it detects the genetic material of the virus and helps in diagnosing active Covid-19 infections.

He said that within the next 16 days, 154 antigen testing camps will be organised in parts of Rajiv Nagar, Nathupur, Palam Vihar, Laxman Vihar, Firoj Gandhi Colony, Mullahera, Patel Nagar, Om Nagar, Manesar and Sohna.