Karnataka: Pooling of COVID-19 samples allowed in districts with less than 5% positivity rate

The Commissionerate of Health and Family Welfare services in Karnataka has allowed the pooling of COVID-19 samples in districts with less than 5% test positivity rate in the state. Meanwhile, in Bengaluru Urban the BBMP zones will be taken into consideration.

Bengaluru: As the COVID-19 positivity rate has been drastically decreasing in Karnataka the Commissionerate of Health and Family Welfare services has allowed the pooling of COVID-19 samples.

The Commissionerate of Health and Family Welfare services allowed the pooling of COVID-19 samples in districts with less than 5% test positivity rate in the state.

In Bengaluru Urban the BBMP zones with less than 5% test positivity rate will be taken into consideration for pooling of the samples.

It is instructed to pool 5 samples at once. Based on the result of the sample pool, further action should be taken.

If the sample pool tests positive individual samples must be tested again. However, if the sample pool turns out to be negative all the samples will be considered negative.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Health and Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar on Thursday claimed that over 80% of the total samples tested COVID-19 in the last 24 hours were tested using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method.