BENGALURU: The state government, which is seeing record highs in Covid-19 cases almost every day, has apparently decided to tweak the testing and quarantine strategies. A health department source confirmed that an expert committee met Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Thursday and a new testing strategy has been decided.
“There will be some tweaking in the testing strategy and also the standard operating procedure (SOP) for quarantining those returning from high-prevalence states. The details will be divulged by the CM soon,” a senior officer said.
Meanwhile, the State Health Department on Friday came up with a new SOPO for those returning from Maharashtra. “Any person from Maharashtra, if he/she carries Covid-19 ‘negative’ certificate from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-approved lab which is latest by two days, will be exempted from IQ (institutional quarantine) of seven days and sent for 21 days home quarantine directly,” it stated.
Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Commissioner,
Health and Family Welfare Department, said, “Some SOPs may change, and we will announce them soon.” With a worryingly high number of cases, Maharashtra, which has become the epicentre of coronavirus, has been accused of not conducting enough tests. “People coming from Maharashtra have been contributing to a large number of positive cases in Karnataka. It is unfortunate that Maharashtra is not screening or testing well,” a public health activist said.