Kolkata: With a gradual development in Covid testing facilities and with more devices being added to the existing infrastructure, the state Health department aims at conducting Covid tests at the booth level, especially in the areas where the infection rate is on the rise. The senior health officials will prepare a road map in consultation with the various civic bodies. According to the initial plans, the Covid tests would be conducted at all the booths situated in the infected areas of the city and other adjoining districts where the infection rate is also high. The state government is keen on deploying the health workers in the booth level whose only job would be visiting the households and conducting Covid tests on all the people residing in the containment zones. Under the current situation, patients have to go to the fever clinic of various hospitals to get themselves tested. State Health department is now trying to take the testing facilities at the doorsteps of the people living in those areas where the infection rate has been higher. It would help the department to diagnose the infected patients early. The Bengal government has currently been conducting the tests in more than 57 laboratories across the state. Some of the private laboratories are sending the swab samples to other labs situated outside the state. The number of tests conducted across the state in a single day has crossed 16,000 marks. With a new Cobas machine being equipped at the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) Beliaghata the daily capacity of Coronavirus testing would go up from August. The Health department will soon install more RT-PCR machines at various government laboratories to conduct more tests a day. As the number of tests in a single day has gone up, the number of Covid cases has also increased. The state government will also import around 8 Cobas machines from Switzerland with an aim to conduct nearly one lakh tests per day. A senior health official of the state said: "With the Covid infection rate going up, some people are getting panicked and they are visiting both the government and private labs for Covid tests. This also mounts pressure on the labs. There is no need to visit the labs without the consultation of a doctor. Those who have Covid symptoms or those people who have come in close contact with the affected patients should undertake swab tests. If the panic stricken people visit the labs in large numbers it would affect the health services in the crucial hours."

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