Will increase COVID-19 testing in Karnataka by ten-fold: K Sudhakar

Medical education minister of Karnataka, K Sudhakar, on Wednesday said that the state would increase number of individuals being tested for coronavirus (COVID-19) by nearly ten-fold, with the combined efforts of private and government laboratories.

Sudhakar said that the department is seeking more permissions to involve private labs as well as scale up the number of individuals being tested for the deadly virus in Karnataka.

“In the next eight to ten days, my target is around 50,000 tests,” Sudhakar told Mint.

The statement comes at a time when the entire country is under lockdown with only essential services available to help people stay indoors and contain COVID-19 from spreading within the community.

A total of 41 people in Karnataka have tested positive for COVID-19, including one death. Three people have been discharged after they fully recovered, according to the state health department.

Those who've been tested positive so far, have either travelled abroad recently or came in contact with someone who is already infected.

Sudhakar, the minister in-charge of COVID-19 in the state, said that the testing will be scaled up with the help of seven government labs and three private facilities.

Till Tuesday evening, 1637 people in the state of over 60 million people were tested and 1196 of these have tested negative, according to the state health department. The state government and Bengaluru city administration are also visiting the homes of around 40,000 people who have returned from foreign countries and are mandatorily placed under home quarantine.

197 people are lodged in medical facilities across the country.

Sudhakar said that the government is confident of getting at least another five labs approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

In an interview to Mint last week, Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw highlighted the importance of testing in India. She said that India should scale up testing with the help of private labs, use a prescription based model for testing and fix maximum retail prices for these tests.

She said that India was testing only about five per million people compared to hundreds, if not thousands in countries like China, South Korea and Italy among other places more affected by the pandemic.