Chandigarh ramps up Covid testing

Naina Mishra
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 14

From an average of 150 tests per day in the first fortnight of July, the UT Administration has increased Covid testing to over 500 tests per day in August.

In the first fortnight of July, the UT collected around 130-160 samples per day. The collection was ramped up to around 250-300 samples per day in the second fortnight of July. The figures saw a quantum jump in August when the UT started collecting about 500-550 samples per day.

The Administration is further planning to augment per day tests beyond 500. The UT Health Secretary, Arun Gupta, said: “We will extend our per day tests beyond 500 in the coming weeks. The teams have tested even 697 people on a single day in August. We are now following a targeted approach in sample collection and have been able to touch the most affected sections of the city along with the new areas where fresh cases were reported.”

30 pc antigen tests

Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) was started in Chandigarh from August 2. Around 1,600 antigen tests have been conducted so far, which is about 30 per cent of the total tests conducted this month. The UT is conducting 350 RT-PCR tests per day and 160 RATs per day.

“We are using Rapid Antigen Test kits only on asymptomatic individuals. For symptomatic individuals, we are conducting RT-PCR tests only,” said Gupta.

Recently, the Administration allowed testing without any prescription from a medical practitioner to reduce the hassles of people.