Rapid antigen tests for Covid-19 will be conducted for free in 10 municipal areas on the northern fringes of Calcutta, covering nearly 20 lakh people, a health department official said.

Kamarahati, Madhyamgram and Barasat are some of the municipalities the department has selected, based on a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases over the last few weeks, to roll out the test.

“Anyone with a doctor’s prescription advising a Covid test can get himself or herself tested for free,” the official said.

Those who will test positive in the antigen test would be immediately referred to a Covid-19 hospital. A cell will be set up to trace contacts of those testing positive and arrangements will be made to get the contacts tested as well, the official said.

If any of those testing negative has mild or moderate symptoms of Covid-19, he or she will be subjected to the confirmatory RT-PCR test.

“The move will bring tests closer to doorsteps so more people can be brought under surveillance. We want to increase the number of tests in all hotspots,” an official said.

Other than Kamarahati, Madhyamgram and Barasat, the municipalities where the test will be introduced are Garulia, Halisahar, Kanchrapara, Naihati, Titagarh, North Dum Dum and Barrackpore.

Officials at Swasthya Bhavan said North 24-Parganas, with a population of around 1.2 crore, has the highest number of Covid cases in Bengal after Calcutta.