TIRUCHY: After drawing flak for low testing numbers, authorities in Tiruchy have finally ramped it up to more than 1000 per day since Friday. The move comes after recommendations by experts to increase testing in Tiruchy as cases increased.
The VRDL laboratory at KAP Vishwanathan Government Medical College has tested more than 36,000 samples for coronavirus till Saturday. Of these, 30,000 are from Tiruchy district. The laboratory has the capacity to test 900-1200 samples per day. Private labs have tested about 3000 samples, said the Collector.
As of last Monday, only an average of 700 samples were being tested daily across the district, which was abysmally low for a population of more than 27 lakh people.
Many changes have been made in the past week after the COVID-19 monitoring officer also took stock of the situation. The district collector S Sivarasu said that testing would be increased. On Friday, 1145 samples were tested, while the figure was 1050 on Saturday.
“We will be testing more from now on. We also urge people to stay indoors as much as possible and wear masks and follow social distancing,” said the Collector.
The corporation, which was testing only 250-300 samples per day, has also started identifying major areas where spread can occur and testing people there. On Saturday, 127 vegetable and fruit traders were tested at the Uzhavar Sandai ground in Tiruchy.
“We are trying to ascertain if there is a chain. Therefore, we are checking markets and public gatherings as those are the biggest sources of spread. We want to arrest the virus at the source so that it doesn’t spread. We are testing about 400 people daily. We are controlling the spread at the grassroot level,” said Corporation Commissioner S Sivasubramaniam.
Before Uzhavar Sandai market, traders at the other large markets like G Corner, Gandhi Market, Mathuram ground market and onion market have also been tested. In all these markets, only about 12 traders tested positive.
Experts also recommended that fever camps should be conducted, like in Chennai. The corporation has decided to take a different route by appointing 65 bill collectors to check people across the city. Each bill collector would check the temperature of 100-200 people per day, said the commissioner.