Thiruvananthapuram: Around 1,000 kits for rapid testing of Covid-19 have been flown into the city, which is among the virus hotspots identified by the central government, while more kits are on their way. The testing kits will be handed over to the district collector.
Announcing the arrival of the first batch of the testing kits, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also thanked SpiceJet for helping transport the kits.
Many thanks, @flyspicejet, @ajaySingh_SG & Mr Ismail, AGM cargo SpiceJet Mumbai, who helped my colleagues effectively in logistics support for the #rapidtestkits. We will win the fight against #COVID19 together! https://t.co/S2KgsJm8Tk— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) April 3, 2020
Tharoor’s office said Rs 57 lakh from the Congress leader’s MPLAD funds were used to procure the kits. “The MP has also given Rs 1 crore to Sree Chitra Institute for developing their testing kits, which will be sent to the ICMR for approval. An order for 3,000 kits has been placed at My Labs, a Pune-based company which has permission from the ICMR to produce the kits,” his office said.
It added that orders have been placed for 9,000 personal protection equipment from Ernakulam of which the first lot of 500 has been delivered and another 500-1000 will be delivered by next week.
The need for rapid testing kits was also expressed by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan during a video conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and counterparts of other states. Vijayan had sought the Centre’s help in procuring kits from Hong Kong.
Kerala has so far recorded two deaths due to Covid-19, with one of them being reported from Thiruvananthapuram. The panchayat area in which the deceased resided has been under total lockdown. Around 10 people in the city are being treated for the novel coronavirus, while around 18,000 are under observation. Of the latter, 84 are in hospital isolation wards.
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