Covid-19 Covid-19: KMC begins rapid antigen tests in Kolkata
Kolkata/IBNS: In the wake of the growing number of Covid-19 cases, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Thursday conducted rapid antigen tests of around 50 local people in south Kolkata's Chetla area, reports said.
KMC Board of Administrators' Chairman Firhad Hakim was present at Chetla's Ahindra Mancha Auditorium where the rapid antigen tests were conducted.
Officials of KMC's Health department said that such rapid tests will be conducted in all boroughs and wards under the corporation's jurisdiction with a target of 800-1000 tests per day.
Earlier on Tuesday, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had set an aim to conduct two lakh rapid antigen tests by Aug 15, besides ramping up the Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing to 25,000 per day.
KMC officials said that rapid antigen tests, which give results quicker than RT-PCR testing method, will help in detecting 'asymptomatic' Covid-19 patients as well as carrying out locality-wise mapping of virus spread.
"This method will help us in tracing and isolating an asymptomatic Covid-19 patient as the results of the rapid antigen tests can be derived in just 30-40 minutes," a KMC health official told IBNS.
"Though results of RT-PCR testing are more accurate than Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) as RAT sometimes gives false negative results which create trouble in detecting asymptomatic Covid patients," the official said.
"Still, we have plans to ramp up Rapid Antigen Tests in the city for area-wise mapping of Coronavirus spread which will help us in battling Covid-19 and to update or develop our Covid-management plans," he added.
The state's Covid-19 tally reached 65,258, including 19,652 active cases, 1,490 discharges and 44,116 discharges on Wednesday.
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