'Allow more labs in Mumbai to test for COVID-19'

The number of daily COVID19 tests in the city has gone up to 5300 in July while it was 4400 in June However the test positivity rate TPR of 217 per cent is still very high against the World Health Organizations WHO standard of 5 per centWhile it is necessary to lower the TPR by increasing tests to eliminate the possibility of inadequate testing the BMC says it has almost reached saturation point in terms of the number of tests Doctors have said that more and more labs should be allowed to do the tests to cover more highrisk contacts and comorbid people A senior officer from the BMC on condition of anonymity said The number of tests has almost reached the saturation point It cannot be increased further All gates for testing are open nowBMC health workers sort test samples at DadarIn Mumbai 6579 tests were conducted on July 14 the highest till date Out of these 5279 80 per cent were conducted in private labs But the average number of tests in July is only 5326 with a TPR of 217 per cent It means that for every 100 people tested 22 are positive A high TPR indicates inadequate testing and to meet the WHOs recommended standards Mumbai needs to ramp up testing at least five folds However the number is not increasing despite BMC having allowed citizens to get tests without prescriptionAlso ReadPrivate labs to join BMC for antigen testing in Malad JogeshwariIn June the average number of tests was 4408 and the TPR was 28 per cent The BMC had restricted people from doing tests without prescriptions Even highrisk contacts of positive patients were tested only after nine days of quarantine The BMC had made the rules by citing ICMR Indian Council of Medical Research guidelines But on July 7 the municipal commissioner allowed everyone to get tested from private laboratories without prescriptions The BMC too ordered one lakh kits of antigen tests and started it in North Mumbai last week These efforts increased the tests by merely 20 per centDr Avinash Bhondwe president Indian Medical Association MaharashtraThe BMC teams are tracing on an average 10 contacts per positive patient and are trying to do testing of all symptomatic patients There is no stone left unturned to reach out to people Every citizen is free to call the lab and get the test as no prescription is needed said Iqbal Singh Chahal municipal commissionerThe number of tests has to be increased by allowing more private labs and providing test kits to them How can BMC trace and treat people without adequate tests said Dr Nilima VaidyaBhamre secretary of the Association of Medical Consultants The number of tests is definitely inadequate There are many ways to increase it First the BMC is testing only three to four highrisk contacts The number should be increased to at least 25 Then the comorbid aged people in hotspots and Containment Zones should be tested said Dr Avinash Bhondwe president of Indian Medical Association MaharastraDr Bhondwe added The BMC has procured one lakh kits for antigen tests 15 tests can be done with each There are only around 48 labs in the state with an NABL accreditation to do antigen testing The state government should ask the centre to let go of the norm of having NABL accreditation and allow MD pathologist labs with 10 years of experience to do the testing It will allow more than 2000 labs in Mumbai to do the testsBMC is shrugging off its responsibility of testing Many suspected patients dont get tested Even in Dharavi the number of tests is less These are tactics of the administration to show less number of positive cases said Prabhakar Shinde group leader of BJP in the BMC5326Average no of daily tests being done in July4408Average no of daily tests done in JuneCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news