Telephone booths to be set up for Covid-19 testing

As the final week of the 21-day lockdown nears, India initiated the ‘phone booth’ testing method to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, reports said. This model is based on south korea’s booth centres.

The testing method comprises collection of samples from an aluminium and glass box cubicle. The suspected covid-19 individual, whose samples are to be taken, has to enter the booth and stand in front of the glass exterior.

After which, the person is directed to follow the instructions given via a public address system. The booth is established with a low cost ranging from 15-20 k. It is portable, can be mounted and effortlessly transferred to other places and mostly serves it’s purpose in hot spots and border check points.

All the health workers should follow certain protocol to carry out the Covid-19 diagnostic testing. The health worker inside the kiosk collects the sample and then, follows the sanitisation process before taking the next sample. The collection process, fully contactless, wraps up in just five minutes.

The phone booth test is expected to cut down manpower requirement and the need for PPE kits that are running out of the supply. This is of great help to the health workers in such crisis. The main advantages of this procedure are that it requires very few health workers to tackle the testing process.

A booth was installed at a government hospital in UP’s Ghaziabad few days ago, which is by far one its kind in Delhi-NCR region. Kerala and Jharkhand are among the states that have already introduced this method.