BHUBANESWAR: AT a time when the State capital continues to report more than 300 cases a day, decreasing RT-PCR tests and poor response to critical patients by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) are only making things worse in the city.
The civic body conducted 2,808 tests on September 12 and just 1,860 tests on September 13. Similarly it conducted 2,495 tests on September 14; 2,603 on September 15 and only 2,277 tests on September 16. However, only 25 to 30 per cent of the total tests carried out by the BMC are done through RT-PCR, which is considered as the ‘gold-standard’ for tests by experts.
The number of RT-PCR tests conducted was 594 on September 12; 480 on September 13; 603 on September 14; 621 on September 15; and 705 on September 16. The number of tests conducted by the private labs in this period also remained between 1,300 and 2,100.
However, BMC officials failed to provide details about the number of RT-PCR tests conducted at the private health care facilities.
The State Capital recorded 305 new cases in the last 24 hours which included 90 cases related to quarantine and 215 cases of local transmission. The civic body, however, didn’t share any information regarding the number of tests carried out on the day.
With BMC admitting to rapid rise in cases in the last 15 days in the city, many believed that increasing RT-PCR tests would have helped the civic body to gather information about spread of the virus with more accuracy.
Apart from less number of RT-PCR tests, poor response of civic body to patients as well as those who need civic body’s help in testing, is another drawback.
Municipal Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary, however, said the cases in the city are declining and the situation of Bhubaneswar will improve soon. More than 73 per cent of the city’s active cases are in home isolation, he added.
Judicial complex declared containment zone
Bhubaneswar: The BMC on Friday declared the areas under the boundary of Bhubaneswar Judicial Complex and District Legal Services Authority as containment zone from September 19 to 25. Issuing a notification to this effect, the civic body stated that the decision was taken after detection of multiple Covid cases in the Civil Court. The BMC, however, clarified that the offices of the Sub-Collector, Tehsildar and District Sub-Registrar there will be excluded from the containment zone area. While entry of visitors has been banned to the containment zone, the civic body asked people residing in the area to dial 1929 to seek help or register grievance.