Pune: Rapid Antigen testing for COVID begins on pilot basis in 5 PMC wards
Sumit Singh
Shivajinagar, July 7, 2020: The Rapid Antigen Tests for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) have started in five wards under Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on a pilot basis, informed Rubal Agarwal, the Additional Commissioner, PMC. The test gives the report of COVID-19 within 30 minutes. PMC has procured one lakh Rapid Antigen test kits.
Agarwal said, “Out of 264 tests, 27 were found positive while the rest were negative. We have planned antigen tests for high risk close asymptomatic contacts. So if there is a negative report, it is accepted as negative, and for symptomatic suspects, we directly go for Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test.”
She also informed that soon every day 5,000 swab samples will be tested for COVID-19. Till now over 1.37 lakh people have been tested in areas under the PMC. Yesterday, 861 new cases of Coronavirus positive patients were found, while 15 patients died. The total number of COVID-19 positive patients in Pune city has reached 22,381.
According to PMC, out of total patients, 13,739 have been cured while 730 have died. There are still 7,912 active patients undergoing treatment in various hospitals. They include 368 critical patients out of which 64 are on ventilator support.
