Health authorities to augment daily PCR testing capacity to 20,000

The Health authorities are keen on increasing the daily PCR testing capacity to 20,000, which currently remains at around 15,000, Deputy Director-General of Health Services Dr. Hemantha Herath said.

Addressing the media, he said they always maintained the positive intention in increasing the PCR capacity in the country.

“It is not an easy process to augment the PCR testing capacity and it can’t be done overnight. It takes time. We have been increasing the capacity over the last year and that’s how we have reached the level where around 15,000 PCR tests are carried out on daily basis,” he emphasized.

“The number of PCR decreased only in December. However, we maintained above 10,000 even during the festive season,” he said.

 Dr Herath also said that there was a slight decrease in Covid cases in Sri Lanka and added it was not yet possible to say whether it was a hundred per cent decrease.

“Though we have noticed a slight downtrend in Covid cases, we would not decrease the PCR testing capacity,” he affirmed.  

“We try our best to conduct random PCR tests as much as possible, apart from conducting PCR tests on close contacts of the infected persons,” he said.

Also commenting on the decision to continue the cremation of Covid-19 victims, Dr Herath said they would take pertinent action based on the report of the review committee in future. (Sheain Fernandopulle)