Karnataka Records Highest Single-Day Surge In Covid-19 Cases; Government Caps Price For Test By Private Labs At Rs 2,250

As Karnataka saw the highest single-day surge in the number of Covid-19 cases (until noon), the state which was said to have a comparatively lower testing rate has scaled up its testing by five times today (17 April).

As reported, the state now tests around 1,500 cases per day. Minister for Medical Education and the state’s Covid-19 war room in-charge Dr Sudhakar explained that earlier 200-300 real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction tests were conducted in a day. But this number has now touched 1,500.

These tests are one of the most accurate laboratory methods for detecting, tracking, and studying the coronavirus, he has said.

In an interview with Swarajya , the minister has also said that 100,000 testing kits are on the way and thus the state’s capacity to test will see a further hike in the days to come.

Meanwhile, the state government fixed the cost per test for private labs at Rs 2,250 today. In a circular issued by the Health and Family Welfare Department, the state announced that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has announced 16 laboratories in the state of which 11 are government-run and five are private labs.

But in a bid to get more number of private labs on board, the government has held meetings with some private labs.

The government will not provide any testing kit or any other related apparatus to the private labs for the same. The private labs will be required to share real time data relating to the Covid-19 cases to both the state government as well as the ICMR.

Karnataka registered 44 Covid-19 positive cases in the past 24 hours, the highest in a single day, raising the state's tally to 359, which includes 13 deaths and 88 discharged.

Mysuru saw the highest surge with 12 cases of which 11 are contacts of the employee of the pharma company in Nanjanagudu who had tested positive for the virus.

Bengaluru saw 10, Ballari has seven new cases, Belagavi has five, Mandya and Chikkaballapura reported three each, Vijayapura has two new cases, while Dakshina Kannada and Bidar have one case each.

With inputs from the IANS.