BHUBANESWAR: Expediting measures to detect more Covid-19 cases in the State Capital, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has initiated rapid antigen test in nine urban health centres of the city.
The urban primary health centres are located at Niladri Vihar, Pokhariput, Saheed Nagar, Unit III, Unit-VIII and Unit IX, while the community health centres are at Dumduma, Patia and Unit IV.
As many as 107 tests were done at these centres on the first day on Tuesday. The BMC has urged people to come forward in large numbers and get themselves tested at these centres voluntarily to check spread of the virus.
The testing centres will remain open from 8 am to 2 pm and tests are being carried out free of cost.
BMC officials said apart from the nine, antigen test will be started in seven more urban health centres at IRC Village, Ghatikia, Kalpana Square, Brahmeshwar Patna, Kapilaprasad, Chandrasekharpur and Municipality Hospital in Old Town from Wednesday.
The city has 22 UPHCs and four UCHCs. Officials said if required they will extend the facility to other urban health centres as well.
They said BMC has already increased its testing capacity. The civic boy conducted 2,010 and 2,285 tests on August 6 and 7 respectively.
In the recent days, the daily testing figure has surpassed 1,800. Three types of tests - swab (RT-PCR), antigen and TrueNaat - are being done at different centres and healthcare facilities across the city on a daily basis. More than 75,000 tests have been done in the city so far.