Corona cases are surging in the state of Kerala. Three employees of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Kerala's Alappuzha have recently tested positive for the novel coronavirus. A report by a leading daily said that all the workers who worked in the same shift as the three infected persons had to go under observation. The lab, which had begun testing the novel coronavirus samples since February, has now cut short the number of tests.
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Instructions have been given to only send samples from other districts that need to be tested urgently. It's also been instructed to increase the number of antigen tests (which can be done in a batch and is often used as a preliminary test for RT-PCR). The NIV had been working for 24 hours in three shifts. With a whole shift now under observation for COVID-19, these changes had to be immediately put in place. Scientist and officer in charge, AP Sugunan told the leading daily that the number of tests has reduced from 1,000 to 400.
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There are now only six or seven staff left to do the work, with 15 staff being under quarantine. He said that the infection came from outside, and not from within the lab. Alappuzha District Medical Officer (DMO) Anithakumari said that this will not affect the total number of tests in the district since samples can be taken to the Kottayam Medical College's lab. On Monday, 199 new cases of the coronavirus were reported from Alappuzha. Out of these, only four were imported cases of people coming from other states.
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