Mangaluru : After the closure of the COVID-19 test centre by the Dakshina Kannada district administration at Talapady, the Kasaragod (Kerala) district administration opened a test centre on the Kerala side of the village on Tuesday for travellers entering Karnataka.

Kasaragod district administration has assigned the task of swab collection to a private firm, Spice Health. Swabs will be taken to the laboratory in the Government Hospital, Kasaragod, where the tests will be done. “An SMS having a link to the test result will be sent within 24 hours of swab collection,” said a representative of Spice Health.

Kasaragod District Collector Bhandari Swagat Raveerchand on Monday stated that a test centre will be opened in the border area to facilitate tests for entry of people into Dakshina Kannada. Karnataka has made production of RT-PCR negative certificate of not older than 72 hours for entry into Dakshina Kannada and other districts bordering Kerala and Maharashtra mandatory.

There is regular stream of people visiting the test centre located on the first floor of the building near the Kerala check-post in Talapady. “This serves me well to meet the requirement of Karnataka,” said Mohammed Nazeer, an autorickshaw driver, who goes on trips between Talapady, Nethilapadavu and Taudugoli that has a couple of Karnataka check-posts. Till around 1 p.m., the personnel at the centre had collected throat and nasal swab samples of nearly 150 people.

The Dakshina Kannada administration on Tuesday intensified checking for RT-PCR negative certificates at Talapady and six other check-posts in the Mangaluru Police Commissionerate limits and at Salethoor and 11 other check-posts in Dakshina Kannada police limits.

Apart from additional police personnel and Home Guards, Health and Education department personnel have been drafted for continuous checking of records at the check-posts. While more personnel are deployed at the Talapady and Salethoor check-posts, eight personnel each are posted at the check-posts in the interior roads. While exempting production of RT-PCR negative certificate for those with health emergency and for students attending examinations, all others were asked to return if they did not have RT-PCR negative certificate and also those carrying only Rapid Antigen Test reports.

Checking was intensified for passengers coming from Kerala and Maharashtra at the Mangaluru Central and Mangaluru Junction railway stations. “Those without test negative certificate are being brought to the quarantine centre where swabs are collected. We are providing results within 12 hours of swab collection. If passengers are found positive, they are being sent to COVID Care Centres,” said District COVID nodal officer H. Ashok.