Citizens allege shortage of COVID-19 testing kits in PHCs

BBMP denies, official says they have been conducting 67,000 tests every day over the last two weeks

With the spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in Karnataka, the State government has decided to ramp up testing. But a few citizens who went to get tested at Primary Health Centres [PHCs] in Bengaluru alleged that the centres had run out of testing kits. A 34-year-old man, who went to get tested in Rajarajeshwarinagar zone, said, “I developed fever and wanted to get tested for COVID-19 so that I do not spread the infection to others in my house. I went to three PHCs in our zone. The first two said they had no testing kit. I got a test done in the third centre and the result was positive. I could have avoided the trouble of running around and coming in contact with other people if I could have given my swab for testing at the first PHC,” he said. Sridhar S., who wanted to get a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) at a PHC in Malleswaram, was told he could get only an RT PCR test. The staff pointed out that the RAT was only for emergency cases and for patients who had Influenza-like Symptoms or Severe Acute Respiratory Infection [SARI].