Chandigarh Increases Testing to Combat COVID

Keeping in view the current COVID situation, the Chandigarh administration has increased the testing to over 500 per day.

130-160 samples/day in early July

In the initial two weeks of July, around 130 to 160 samples were collected per day.

Further, it increased to around 250-300 samples per day during the last two weeks.

More than doubled

The Administration has doubled the collection of samples from an average of 250 per day in July’s last week to an average of 500 per day in August.

Further plans to increase

The Health Secretary of UT, Arun Gupta said the administration is planning to increase per day tests beyond 500 in the coming weeks.

The teams have tested even 697 people on a single day in August, he added.

Targeted approach

The Administration is 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, the Secretary said.

Antigen tests too conducted

The UT administration is also conducting Rapid Antigen Tests on asymptomatic individuals.

Till date, 1600 antigen tests have been conducted in the city.

Besides this, for symptomatic individuals, RT-PCR tests are conducted.

No prescription required 

In order to provide easy access of COVID testing to the citizens, the UT administration recently allowed citizens to get themselves tested from registered medical practitioners without a prescription.

Source: Twitter handle Advisor, UT, The Tribune