One can now walk into a camp organised by the civic body and give swab samples for an RT-PCR test for Covid-19 without a doctor’s prescription, officials said on Thursday.

So far, the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) has been organising such camps to collect swab samples from those who were identified as possible coronavirus-infected persons during a surveillance by health workers of the civic body or others mobilised by the local ward coordinator. And those turning up to get tested needed to show a doctor’s prescription.

The RT-PCR test is the most reliable method to find out whether a person has been infected by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which causes Covid-19. The samples collected in the camps are sent to SSKM Hospital for testing.

CMC officials said a decline in the turnout at the camps had prompted them to do away with the condition that one needed to show a doctor’s prescription.

“So many people would come to the camps from May to July that resources would be overstretched to collect their swab samples. But the turnout this month is quite low,” said a CMC official.

To ensure a better turnout, the CMC is updating its Facebook page every night with information about the wards where such camps will be held the next day. “We have been publishing this information on our Facebook page for the last couple of days. We want more people to know whether swab samples will be collected near their home the next day,” said Sandipan Saha, advisor (information technology), CMC.

Saha, who is also coordinator of Ward 52, said that only 30 people gave their samples at a camp in his ward on Wednesday. “The team was prepared to collect many more samples. We had made announcements about the camp, yet the turnout was low,” he said.

“Laboratories are conducting the RT-PCR test if someone has a doctor’s prescription. But someone who has failed to consult a doctor but has symptoms of the disease can come to any of our camps and give swab samples for a test,” said a CMC official.

The camps are conducted in six wards of the Calcutta municipal area every day. The CMC Facebook page is only naming the wards where the camps will be held and not the venue because locations are often changed at the last minute, Saha said.

“Those who want to be tested should contact the ward coordinator or the ward health clinic of the CMC to know the venue,” he said.

CMC officials said they were aiming to collect swab samples from about 500 people for the RT-PCR tests daily.

The CMC is also conducting rapid antigen tests — another type of diagnostic test for Covid-19 — in highrises and other locations. “We have a target of doing about 1,600 tests, RT-PCR and antigen, every day,” said a CMC doctor.