Bhubaneswar: In a bid to speed up Covid-19 tests in the State, Odisha Government has decided to carry out extensive group testing or pooled sample testing.
The practice involves mixing of several samples to create a large sample and putting them up for test in one go instead of testing every single sample one at a time.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Naba Kishore Das on Thursday said that the State Government will carry out extensive poll testing of Covid-19 and increase the day-wise test count to more than 3000 to contain the virus spread.
“We will carry out extensive pool testing of Covid-19. Proposals have been made to facilitate Coronavirus testing at all medical colleges in the State thereby increasing the day-wise test count to more than 3000,” said Das after a meeting of Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on Covid-19 headed by Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari.
The Minister informed that a proposal has also been made to establish an NDRF-type health disaster management training centre in the State to facilitate advance training to doctors, paramedics, nurses so that they can be immediately deployed during future health exigencies.
The meeting of EGoM, headed by Finance Minister Pujari, also discussed the containment and management plans for the coronavirus.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Naba Kishore Das, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Sudam Marandi, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Housing and Urban Development and Law Minister Pratap Jena and Women and Child Development and Mission Shakti Minister Tukuni Sahoo are the members of the EGoM. They all attended the meeting through video conferencing.
The State has so far reported 60 Covid-19 positive cases.
