The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has resumed the drive to test citizens for antigen and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) even though one patient has tested positive for Covid influenza, not wanting to get off to a bad start.
In all ten of its zones, the NMC has reopened the testing units that it had set up during the coronavirus pandemic. The city’s 48 test centers at NMC Urban Primary Health Centers have resumed testing residents whose symptoms correspond to the established criteria for severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) and influenza-like illness (ILI).
Patients with ILI symptoms include those who have a persistent fever of more than 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit and a cold cough. SARI patients include those with viral pneumonia, among other conditions. For more than ten days, health officials have been requesting that residents exhibiting these symptoms get tested at these facilities. Every day, the NMC performs nearly fifty tests on average. A senior official in the NMC health department stated, “Testing is expected to reach 400 to 500”.
There is only one positive patient in the city as of December 26. A 60-year-old Dharampeth zone resident has positive results for beer. His beer sample has been sent for genome sequencing, and he is currently being monitored by a physician.