The State government has decided to set up COVID-19 testing laboratories on PPP model and a tender process for the same will be completed within a week, said Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar.
Speaking after inaugurating the new COVID-19 testing lab by Eurofins Clinical Genetics India (ECGI) in the city on Friday, the Minister said measures were being taken to increase testing labs by threefold. Further tender would be floated by the Health and Medical Education Department to set up RT-PCR machines in two weeks. Speaking about testing in the State, he said 144 labs had been inaugurated in six months. The lab inaugurated on Friday was expected to conduct up to 5,000 tests a day.
Despite creating awareness about the spread of the COVID-19, the positive cases have been increasing in the state due to lack of awareness on the part of people. Hence, the government has taken strict action by hiking the penalty to Rs 1,000 for not wearing masks at public places in urban areas, Mr Sudhakar said.
He said that though positive cases were on the high in the state, the death rate was under control, at 1.52%.
