Covid-19 Test Bus

With Novel Coronavirus showing no signs of disappearing yet, testing is looked upon as among the best ways to tackle the deadly menace.

- Deven Lad

It is very warm and dry. The weather in Pune is typical of summers in this part of India. In a typical middle-class locality in the city an usual looking bus roll downs the road and comes to a halt by the side of the road. It has ‘Aarya’ written at the front; on the large front glass. The sides have stickers from the top to the bottom, and from the front to the rear. They announce in no uncertain terms that this is a Covid-19 test bus. With ‘Krsnaa Diagnostics’ written in bold, it does not take long to understand that this bus has rolled into the locality to power a campaign to test the people here for the deadly viral infection, thousands of kilometers away from where it is known to have originated in China.

One of the three such buses that were perhaps leased from Aarya Trans Solutions, a Pune-based company that specialises in bus operations for segments like staff, school, tourist, etc., the bus, measuring 12 m in length, is built on the Tata LPO 1618 chassis. Designed for mass screening, which, according to sources, would account for over five million tests a month, based on symptoms such as fever, oxygen levels and x-rays, the bus has a front single entry door. A person, after being registered on the desk manned by personnels located adjacent to the bus is escorted into the bus by a PPE clad technician for collection of swab samples and for carrying out other tests. Sans any seats, the passenger compartment of the bus has been suitably modified to ensure that the samples are collected as per the prescribed norms and the staff manning the mobile test centre is not exposed to the risk of catching the infection.