1 lakh more rapid test kits for city?
PLAN BMC looks to continue with proactive testing approach; 6.05L tests conducted till Sunday; 925 new cases reported
MUMBAI : After crossing the six lakh Covid-19 tests mark, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to procure one lakh more antigen testing kits to continue with its “proactive testing approach”. The total number of Covid tests done till Sunday is 6.05 lakh.
Rapid antigen kits deliver test results within 15-20 minutes, but are less sensitive compared to the RT-PCR tests. More than 50% of the daily Covid tests are done using these kits, according to BMC officials. According to the civic body’s data, more than 24,937 sanitation workers have been tested using the kits; 215 of them have tested positive. Among the 4,551 rapid tests conducted on the Mumbai police staff, 101 have come positive.
A senior civic official said, “A proposal will soon be put up for another one lakh antigen kits. We are halfway through exhausting the antigen kits from the current stock of one lakh kits. These testing kits are proving to be beneficial as we are able to find more positive cases in a short span.”
Civic officials also said they plan to increase the number of teams that are conducting tests and test in phases to cover more areas. Madhav Sathe, retired professor of microbiology at Nair Hospital, said, “Rapid antigen testing should be done on a larger scale across Maharashtra. Areas like Jalgaon, Solapur, Pune, Pimpri-chinchwad and Navi Mumbai should have antigen testings, too, as there are more cases there and the testing capacity is not up to the mark.” BMC had procured one lakh kits in the first week of July from a South Korean firm, which was the only company approved by ICMR. On July 2, the civic body announced that it would start rapid antigen tests at the five wards with the most Covid-19 cases at the time – R-north (Dahisar), R-central (Borivli), R-south (Kandivli), P-north (Malad) and P-south (Goregaon). Later, it was decided to include all wards. Meanwhile, on Monday, Mumbai recorded 925 Covid-19 cases and 46 deaths, taking the tally to 124, 307 and toll to 6, 845, according to the state health department data. As per BMC’S data, of the 46 deaths, four were of patients below 40 years of age, 30 of patients above 60 years of age, and 12 patients were between 40 and 60 years.
The data stated that 1, 407
patients were discharged on Monday. A total of 97,993 patients have been treated and discharged so far. The number of active patients in the city is 19,
172. The recovery rate of the city is 78%.
Dharavi reported nine new cases on Monday, taking the total to 2,626.