E-Paper
PMC rapid antigen test crosses 10k
The first batch of one lakh kits arrived in the city earlier this week and have been given to civic-run Naidu hospital.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) crossed 10,000 rapid antigen tests in the city on Thursday. It daily conducted 1,000 in the last four days. The civic administration had already given permission to carry out one lakh rapid antigen tests.
Additional municipal commissioner Rubal Agrawal said, “For early detection, a rapid antigen test is useful as result can be obtained within 30 minutes. It is an easy test for early detection. PMC has increased the overall test facility and rapid antigen tests is also helping in easing the load on National Institute of Virology.”
PMC standing committee chairman Hemant Rasane said, “The standing committee has cleared fund to conduct 1 lakh tests. The cost of each test is Rs450. If needed, PMC would release more fund to carry out more tests. PMC has also approved money for swab test and would pay private laboratory for conducting the test.”
The first batch of one lakh kits arrived in the city earlier this week and have been given to civic-run Naidu hospital. Authorities would use these kits in mobile ambulances, flu clinics and door-to-door surveys to identify positive patients.
The kits use nasal or saliva samples from suspects and results are made available within 20-30 minutes. The kit indicators are similar to a pregnancy kit. It helps detect the antigens that are found in the Sars-CoV-2 virus which causes the Covid-19 infection. The kits were ordered by the civic body after the India Council of Medical Research (ICMR) approved its use on June 18.
Rapid antigen tests conducted in July
Date- tests conducted
2 25
6 264
7 386
8 777
9 755
10 786
11 887
12 962
13 1,432
14 1,929
15 1,416
16 -2,969
Total - 12,588
Data released by PMC
Municipal commissioner visits Covid care centres
Pune municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar on Thursday visited various Covid care centres in the city. Kumar appreciated the teams for their efforts and instructed them to increase more contract tracing for early detection. He appealed to residents to contact doctors and flu clinics if they contract symptoms linked to Covid-19.
