BENGALURU: By the time you read this, biotech major Biocon would have tested 10,000-plus Covid-19 samples from across the state. Reassuringly, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Biocon Executive Chairperson, said, “The test positive rates are still low in Karnataka.’’ Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said, “We have 25 such private testing facilities and, including governmentrun ones, we have 62 testing centres.
We are already testing 13,000 to 15,000 people a day and the total has crossed 2.5 lakhs. The government pays Rs 2,200 per test to private centres.” Mazumdar-Shaw said, “We are doing it for free. Going by the government rate, we have already spent over Rs 2 crore to test the samples over the last few weeks. Initially, a few samples were sent, but now it has increased to 1,000-1,500 per day.
We have also ramped up testing. Overall, Karnataka is d o i n g a good job. We need to keep tracing, testing and treating fast and effectively to break the chain. If we catch them early, they recover early. If we diagnose early, we prevent the spread.’’ Asked if Tamil Nadu and other states have requested Biocon to test their samples, she said, “No, because logistics is an issue.
We don’t have testing facilities in other states. The Karnataka government is collecting the samples and sending them to us which are being tested at our Syngene facility in Jigani, South Bengaluru.” On tackling the pandemic in the coming days, she said, “We need to conduct tests at all workplaces as people are still so scared about Covid. With travel resumed and thousands of people travelling, testing is the only option.” Dr Sudhakar said, “We hope to increase the number of labs to around 100 and we can achieve this, as more laboratories are joining the fight.” On private labs offering free testing, Additional Chief Secretary Jawaid Akhtar said, “Anand Diagnostic Labs too conducted the tests for free, but for certain numbers only.’’
Pleased to announce a proud milestone of having delivered 10,000 tests to GoK in a very short time of just few weeks under our CSR program — We will continue serving the people Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Biocon Executive Chairperson