Like South Korea, Kerala Sets up COVID-19 Testing Kiosks

Like South Korea, Kerala Sets up COVID-19 Testing Kiosks

The sample collection cabins will be able to quickly and efficiently test for COVID-19.

Kerala has come up with a unique solution to combat the growing COVID-19 crisis and the urgent lack of PPEs (personal protective equipment) for healthcare workers.

On Monday, 6 April, Kerala set up COVID-19 collection kiosks where people can quickly and efficiently get their samples collected. The collection cabins are similar to the ones used in South Korea, and in Kerala, these are called Walk-in Sample Kiosks (WISK).

Two of these cabins were installed Government Medical College in Ernakulam reports The News Minute.

So how does it work?

First, the medical staff goes inside the cabin, cleans their hands with sanitizer, wears gloves and then puts their hands inside the gloves affixed to the kiosk.

The patient comes in, uses a sanitizer to sterilise their hands as well, sits down outside the kiosk and opens their mouth for swab collection.

Afterwards, a healthcare worker sanitizes the gloves and the seat which the patient sat on and the process starts again.

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The cabins are made to ensure hygiene, and the environment inside and outside is constantly sanitised after each patient. It also has magnetic doors, ultraviolet lights and an exhaust fan.

A similar sample collection kiosk was installed in a Jharkhand hospital as well.

An innovation like this would protect healthcare workers and greatly reduce the need for PPEs which are currently in shortage in the country.

The Ernakulam DMO told TNM that these kiosks are made locally in “two days at a cost of about Rs 40,000.”

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