‘Self-testing gives only 20% cases’

LIBERALISED TESTING Most cases from close contacts of patients or detections at the testing camps; recoveries cross 1L

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MUMBAI : More than a month after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) liberalised the testing policy, the civic body said that a majority of new cases of Covid-19 remain from close contacts of patients or detections at the testing camps, with 10-20% from among those who get tested on their own. From July 7, BMC had allowed anyone to get tested at private labs without any medical prescription.

The city has been reporting around 900-1,200 cases daily for over a month.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, BMC, said, “A majority of cases being reported daily is not from those getting tested on their own. Around 10-20% daily cases come from people who get tested on their own. The rest are from our efforts. This includes testing high- and low-risk contacts of patients and our camps. It is a good sign. It indicates the situation is under control, considering the daily positivity rate is around 20% for the past few days.”

BMC started to screen citizens from Mumbai airport since January 18, and conducted the first test on February 3. The first positive case in Mumbai was reported on March 11. In the past two months, the number of tests has also doubled in the city, partly owing to usage of 1 lakh rapid antigen kits procured by BMC. As of August 10, Mumbai had conducted 6.13 lakh tests.

The one-lakh-test mark was crossed on May 6, two lakh on June 1, three lakh on June 24, four lakh on July 14, five lakh on July 29 and six lakh on August 9. Although Mumbai’s testing has increased, it is lower than Delhi that has tested around 12.04 lakh samples until August 10, according to BMC’S Covid-19 dashboard. On August 11, Mumbai conducted 9,218 tests, taking the total to 6.22 lakh, with an overall positivity rate of 20.10 per cent.

BMC has traced around 20 lakh citizens in the past five months, of which 3 lakh are lowrisk and 7 lakh are high-risk contacts.

The civic body has also screened around 1.79 crore citizens, including 7.83 lakh senior citizens.

Kakani said, “We are also starting the second phase of sero-surveillance survey from Thursday. The sero-survey will be conducted in the same areas of Dahisar, Borivli, Matunga, Dadar and Wadala. We will collect 6,500 samples. The results in the second phase will help us ascertain the spread,

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and will also help us take decisions on lockdown relaxations. However, the third phase will be taken up at a later stage.” In the first phase of sero-survey, BMC had tested around 6,900 samples.

Further, the number of recovered patients crossed 1 lakh on Wednesday, with the total reaching 100,068. The recovery rate in Mumbai was 79.1%.

On Wednesday, Mumbai recorded 1,132 fresh cases and 50 new deaths, taking the city’s tally to 126,356 and toll to 6,944. There were 19,047 active cases in the city and fatality rate was 5.49%, according to the state health department data.

Dharavi recorded nine new cases on Wednesday, bringing the case count to 2,643, of which 2,298 have been discharged.

Kakani said, “We are contacting all patients who were discharged in the earlier days. This will help us understand the symptoms, and help patients mentally. We will also appeal to the recovered patients to donate plasma, but that is last on our agenda of following up.”

Dr Siddarth Paliwal, a private health consultant from Mumbai, said, “It is a good sign that new patients are from those who are being traced by BMC. BMC should also disclose the number of tests conducted by citizens on their own. We need to understand if the number of those testing on their own is substantial, increasing or decreasing.”