KOLKATA: In the wake of a rise in Covid cases, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided to resume swab collection in 33 of its 144 urban primary health centres located across the city. Majority of these centres were shut down in July as the number of Covid cases had dipped significantly.
However, with the Covid graph rising steadily since the second week of October, the civic brass didn’t take chances and decided to reopen all swab collection centres as that will boost the testing facilities and help combat the resurgence of Covid in the city. Swab collected from persons showing Covid-like symptoms at the civic clinics is sent to SSKM for RT-PCR test.
Besides reopening the swab collection centres, the civic body may add some such centres in areas where the cases are getting concentrated. This apart, the KMC health department is also keeping its fleet of mobile swab collection units ready to enable residents of high-rises, housing complexes or apartment buildings to take the advantage of an RT-PCR test.
According to a KMC health department official, a section of the citizens was visiting the civic body’s ward health clinics with symptoms like fever, cough and cold.
“Though we are suggesting they take an RT-PCR test, we can’t send all of them to our health clinics for a swab test as our centres collecting swabs are limited now. We shut the majority of our swab collection centres as the cases had come to an all-time low since August. Now time has come to reopen them as people with Covid-like symptoms should mandatorily undergo a test in the wake of a hike in positive cases,” a KMC executive health officer said.
The KMC Covid combat team is also worried over a large number of asymptomatic citizens testing positive.
“We have figures to show that among those testing positive, majority were asymptomatic. We have reasons to believe that if people voluntarily come forward from a family or a locality where Covid patients are recovering, and get tested, some of them will test positive,” said a KMC official.
