Karnataka to appoint 700 lab technicians to ramp up testing

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has decided to appoint 700 lab technicians and an equal number of data entry operators on a contract basis to ramp up testing in various districts, aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19.

“To maximise the testing by completely utilizing the capacity of COVID-19 labs, it has been decided to appoint 700 lab technicians and an equal number of data entry operators immediately,” Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar tweeted.

According to the proceedings of the government, these lab technicians and data entry operators are for conducting Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT), and their appointment will be for the period of 6 months or until further orders.

A total of 13,50,792 samples have been tested so far, out of which 36,936 were tested on Friday alone. Among the samples tested today 22,164 were rapid antigen tests.

Sudhakar in another tweet said stringent action will be taken against private hospitals which do not cooperate with Arogyamithras (nodal officer) deployed by Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust.

Non-cooperation with Arogyamithras, who facilitate triage and ensure that information on bed availability is updated on the dashboard, will not be tolerated, he added.