Tripura to conduct 7000 COVID-19 tests per day

In an attempt to cover the maximum population of the state in terms of COVID testing, the Tripura government has taken initiatives to enable all the primary and community-level health infrastructure so that they could carry out COVID tests even in the remote parts of the state, Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath said. 

There altogether, Ratan said, 138 PHC (Primary Health Centers) and CHC (Community Health Centers) in the state and from now on the state has decided to engage all these infrastructures in mass testing of COVID-19.

“We have decided to engage every single PHC and CHC in the job testing. Each of the CHC and PHC will be directed to conduct 30 tests everyday—25 rapid through rapid antigen test kit and the rest through RT-PCR kit. Entry points of the state such as Churaibari and Airport also doing 500 to 700 tests everyday. In this way, we have aimed that by one month the state will cover more than 2 lakh people of the state on a daily average of 7,000 tests”, Nath told reporters.

Also read: Assam reports another spike of 1088 COVID-19 cases, death toll rises to 48

On the need of lab technicians for the tests and other resources, he said, it is almost certain that with increasing tests, there will be a need for the additional workforce. If there is any requirement for lab technicians, the state government will allow the hospitals to recruit lab technicians for a period till in a flat honorarium structure of Rs 20,000 on COVID duty. Rationalization of manpower will be also done to achieve the targeted numbers, he added.

Nath also informed that 3 more machines would be installed along with the existing 4 machines to expedite the testing process and there would be testing facilities at Tripura Medical College, Udaipur and Dharmanagar very shortly.

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