Karnataka Faces Testing Lag

About 5,000 swab samples of Covid-19 suspects are pending for testing in various laboratories of Karnataka, indicating the need to push the capacity of existing labs and expand testing by adding more facilities.

The backlog increased during last week as districts started sending more samples, including those of primary and secondary contacts and patients with severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) and influenzalike illness (ILI). As on April 18, the number of samples received was 24,424 and those tested was 19,186. In Karnataka, 17 laboratories are now testing about 2,000 samples a day, but the backlog hasn’t come down as the state has been sending more samples since April 15.