Covid-19 Udupi: Only 40% of swab samples tested so far; over 6k samples pending for testing

Team Udayavani, May 30, 2020, 3:45 PM IST

Udupi: The influx of interstate and international travellers to Udupi district has resulted in a spike of coronavirus cases. The district which was in the green zone till a fortnight back has 164 confirmed cases of coronavirus as on Friday, May 29.

It must however be noted that nearly 60 percent of the swab samples collected so far are pending for testing. In Udupi, KMC Manipal hospital has been given the nod for conduct of coronavirus testing. The district administration is also sending samples to neighbouring Dakshina Kannada and Shivamogga district for testing in the approved labs.

Despite this around 6019 samples of the 10,969 collected until May 29 are yet to be processed. This implies that once the results are found, the district can see a further spike in the number of cases.

A health official said that if all approved labs in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Shivamogga would process only pending samples of Udupi district, then too it would take atleast 7-8 days to clear the backlog. Around 700-800 samples can be processed in a day, he informed.

Following the recent revision in guidelines by GoK, pertaining to Covid 19 testing of interstate and international traveler, the district administration is likely to discard samples of persons belonging to category C and D. Currently, samples are being tested for only category A and B people.

It must be noted that since relaxation of lockdown as many as 8,191 people have arrived in Udupi from Maharashtra alone.