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BENGALURU:
In a bid to utilize the services of private labs and to keep down the number of persons in institutional quarantine, the state health and family welfare department has ordered that passengers entering Karnataka from high-risk states by air or rail should get themselves tested at designated labs at their own cost.
The following labs have been assigned for testing different categories of passengers entering Karnataka:
All international and domestic air passengers: Xcyton Diagnostics, Bengaluru.
All inter-state rail passengers: Neuberg Anand Reference Laboratories, Cancyte Technologies Private Limited, Aster Lab, Narayana Hrudayalaya Lab, Vydehi Hospital and Lab, Syngene International Limited.
The assigned labs will have the responsibility of:
a) Collection of swabs at airport/railway station/hotel etc. as per the prevalent government policy.
b) Testing by RT-PCR method as per ICMR guidelines.
c) Communicating the report to passengers and to the government’s Nodal Officer.
The samples will be tested by the pooling method (5 samples in one pool as per ICMR guidelines). Each traveler will be charged a fee of Rs. 650 per test by the private lab, irrespective of test result being positive or negative.
The airport authorities/ railways will provide necessary space for establishing swab collection kiosks/centres free of cost.
The Nodal Officers for each segment — international passengers Meena Nagaraj (IAS), domestic air passengers Manivannan (IAS), and inter-state train passengers K. Dayanand (IAS)– will be responsible for the establishment and operationalization of the above.
If a passenger comes out positive after the test, the jurisdictional District Health & Family Welfare Officer/ Chief Health Officer (PH) BBMP shall be informed for necessary movement of the patient to a hospital, contact tracing and tracking.
The order says that the Deputy Commissioners of the remaining 29 districts shall link ICMR- approved private labs with passengers, as done for BBMP / Bengaluru Urban district.
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