Odisha Tests Over 40K In 24 Hrs

Bhubaneswar : As many as 40,711 Covid-19 tests have been conducted in Odisha in the last 24 hours, informed Additional Chief Secretary, Health & Family Welfare, Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra to reporters here today.

Covid-19 testing has been gradually increased in the last four days, Mohapatra added.

He said the 40,711 tests conducted in the State in the last 24 hours include 7,077 Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests, 33,439 antigen tests, and 195 TrueNAT tests.

The Additional Chief Secretary further informed that by August 20 Covid-19 tests in the State would be scaled-up to over 50,000 tests per day.

Mohapatra has cautioned that more the number of people are tested; there is the possibility of the number of positive cases going up in the State.

It may be mentioned here that Director of Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) Dr Ajay Parida quoting the Development Commissioner had told on Wednesday that the State has set a target to conduct one lakh Covid-19 tests per day in the coming days.

Dr Parida had explained that the advantage of testing more people would be helpful in screening and isolating positive cases, thus arresting transmission or spread of the virus to others.