With 44 new Covid-19 cases, tally in Rajasthan nears 1400-mark

The state health department said 47,904 samples have been collected so far. Out of these 39,714 have come out negative and 6795 samples are under process.

Rajasthan reported 44 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and one death across the state on Sunday, taking the tally to 1395, health officials said according to news agency ANI.

On Saturday, 5000 tests were conducted in Jaipur’s walled city, from where the most number of cases have been reported. (ANI photo)

The news agency said the Covid-19 patient died in the state capital of Jaipur.

“Out of the total positive cases found today, 27 were from Jodhpur city while eight were reported from Bharatpur. Two cases were each reported from Jaipur, Kota, Jhalawar districts. While Jaisalmer, Nagaur, Hanumangarh recorded one case each,” the health department said in its bulletin.

The state health department said 47,904 samples have been collected so far. Out of these 39,714 have come out negative and 6795 samples are under process.

Rajasthan on Friday became the first state to conduct rapid testing for the Covid-19 infection with the help of newly-acquired rapid antibody testing kits, which will help speed up the testing time and detect carriers or super-spreaders of the Sars-Cov-2 virus who could potentially infect others.

Rajasthan got 10,000 rapid test kits on Friday and 52 samples were tested, all of which were negative. On Saturday, 5000 tests were conducted in Jaipur’s walled city, from where the most number of cases have been reported.

Rohit Singh, additional chief secretary, health, said the rapid tests would help the government in the ongoing containment exercise as people tested positive will be quickly isolated to prevent further spread.

“This is part of our strategy to use an optimal mix of both types of tests for effective containment in an aggressive manner,” he said.

State health minister Raghu Sharma had said on Saturday that Rajasthan will get 100,000 testing kits soon.