Worries about community transmission have prompted the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to undertake a major testing programme across several areas of the city. On Saturday, testing began within the Bommanahalli zone.
Captain P Manivannan, IAS, Special officer for the Zone, said that testing activities had begun at two wards: Hongasandra and Uttarahalli on Saturday and would see a total of 500 tests conducted per ward.
According to the State Covid War Room, Hongasandra has had 147 total cases up to July 19, while Uttarahalli saw 241 total cases. More importantly, since July 6, there have been at least 80 identified Covid-19 cases reported from Hongasandra in active containment zones. The ward was hit early by the virus in April when several scrap metal workers were infected. Five of the infected here are apartment dwellers.
Utarrahalli has had an even larger outbreak, numbering at least 137 cases in active containment zones since July 4. Out of these, 43 people are apartment dwellers.
A senior BBMP official involved in testing said that they plan to cover all city wards and make free antigen testing available to certain eligible portions of the populations. These include contacts of known Covid-19 cases, people with symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) or Influenza-Like Illness (ILI), plus anyone coming down with easily identifiable symptoms of the disease such fever cough and cold.
Captain Manivannan explained that the testing will be done for all sixteen wards in the Bommanahalli zone.
“We will alternate eight wards on one day and eight wards on the following day. Our plan is to cover every house, once in two days. We feel that whenever a person develops symptoms of the disease, he or she has to get the test done so that we have the case moved to a hospital. A delay of 48 hours could result in criticality. Our entire aim is to stop death,” he said.
He added that people can access the testing programme in two ways: Either by calling the helpline number 8884666670 or appearing for testing when the testing staff is on the streets.
According to the Palike, 200 tests had been conducted at both the wards until 11 am. “Testing activities will come to an end at 3 pm. At that point we can take account of how many tests were actually done,” the BBMP official said.
He clarified that this testing was independent of mobile testing, which was also taking place across several wards, although on Saturday, none of these were in Bommanahalli zone.