BENGALURU: The home self-test kits for COVID are not fool-proof, though they are approved by the government. It is not confirmatory or a substitute for RT-PCR tests.
Those who have symptoms must get an RT-PCR test done, said Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta on Tuesday. If people have any apprehensions or are not comfortable with visiting a testing centre, they can get an RT-PCR test arranged at home or their desired location.
Without proper physical triaging, no one will be admitted at government or private hospitals, he said. He added that 100 per cent tele-triaging is done for every case within 24 hours from war rooms. As on date, around 3,000 patients are physically triaged every day. Control rooms in all the 28 Assembly constituencies are monitoring each case.
The paediatric committee is also watching all cases and so far, paediatric cases have not seen a rise. Among active cases, 10 per cent are in the age group of 0-18. "A week-on-week increase of 250 per cent in cases has been noticed. Hospitalisations continue to be low -- only 1.3 per cent of overall active cases are currently in hospitals and less than 0.5 per cent are on critical beds," he said.
"Testing has also increased to 1.1 lakh per day. Active containment zone count as on January 17, stands at 627, of which 385 are in apartments, 214 individual houses, five schools/colleges and 23 hostels/PGs and others," he added.
Till date, BBMP has distributed 55,000 home isolation medical kits and 90,000 are in stock. Seventeen COVID Care Centres are operational with 1,387 beds (911 General Beds and 576 oxygen beds), while another 10 CCCs have been kept as reserve.
Also 3,237 beds are reserved in government hospitals, 2,696 beds in government medical colleges, 13,540 in private hospitals and 8,594 in private medical colleges, totalling to 28,067 beds. Of these, as of now, 6,704 beds are made available for allotment under the CHBMS and 637 were allotted.
On nearly 60 per cent of people suffering from cold and cough, he said, anyone with symptoms must undergo an RT- PCR test. This only rules out the possibility of COVID-19. He asserted that if the cases rise, more restrictions could be enforced. But the final decision will be taken by the government, after discussing with experts.