After the KMC health department started borough-wise rapid antigen tests last week, the civic body had started searching for spacious buildings for conducting these tests. Besides conducting rapid antigen tests, the department will also utilize these community halls to collect swab samples for RT-PCR tests.
According to a KMC source, the civic body had already taken over some community halls in areas such as Kankurgachhi-Ultadanga- Phoolbagan belt, Chittaranjan Avenue, Nimtolla Ghat Street, Bijoygarh-Baghajatin, Garia-Patuli, Behala and areas off EM Bypass. The health officials are still in search of more such halls.
A section of KMC health department officials felt the civic body should now approach housing complexes to take up their auditoriums or community halls and convert them into testing centres.
According to a civic official, the KMC health department had to ask borough executive engineers to suspend bookings of the community halls temporarily for social gatherings. “Accordingly, we selected several community halls for converting them into Covid-testing centres. We have been searching for space, especially in the Covid-sensitive zones, for extending testing facilities to more suspects. We have identified some such halls in select areas where positive cases are on the rise,” said a KMC official.
The official added that the KMC health department was preferring AC community halls since swab samples need to be preserved before being sent to testing labs. “Till now, we have successfully managed to get control of some community halls that can be converted into ideal Covid-testing centres. For some other halls, we need to conduct a thorough sanitization drive before handing them over to the laboratory technicians,” said a KMC health department official.
He pointed out that they had set their eyes on a couple of community halls in Behala that can be used as multiple centres for Covid testing. “There is a four-storeyed modern community hall with huge space on each floor at Parnasree. It can be converted into multiple testing centres. Another newly built centre on James Long Sarani may also serve as a testing purpose,” the official said.
