GUWAHATI, Aug 2 - Keeping in mind the transmission of the novel coronavirus among the people who come for testing, the No.1 Hengrabari LP School COVID Screening and Counselling Centre has taken several initiatives to keep the virus at bay.
The No.1 Hengrabari LP School is one of the 60 newly formed COVID screening and counselling centres in the city.
As testing is a key factor in fighting this virus, the State government has been proactive in testing more and more people to detect infection.
Nitish Sarmah, the doctor in charge of the centre, said that more than 110 rapid antigen test (RAT) and RT-PCR tests have been done at the centre till date.
�We have a general waiting room from which people come to the registration room one by one, and after that, they are sent to the testing room. Depending on the rapid antigen test reports, if the patient is found positive, they are sent to the COVID-positive room immediately and later they are sent to the designated COVID care centre,� Sarmah said.
Moreover, the centre has separate waiting rooms for RAT negative (asymptomatic) and RAT negative (symptomatic), keeping in mind RAT negative symptomatic patients may turn out to be RT-PCR positive.
�In that case, if they are kept in the same room for 20 to 30 minutes till the time he or she gets his or her results, it will increase chances of the transmission of the virus,� he added.
A dedicated team of the centre has also been doing field visits in the area and have been testing the shop owners, shop employees and local vendors of the area in the past few days.
�We are planning to visit various offices and housing complexes in the area for testing from next week. The public in the area are responding well for COVID testing. Our team has also been focusing on creating awareness among the public in the area about COVID-19 and rapid antigen tests,� Sarmah said.
