Mumbai: Following the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's circular on Tuesday permitting Covid-19 testing for all without a doctor's prescription, city laboratories reported a 15-25 per cent rise in calls on Wednesday.
However, laboratory managers have said random testing will only increase their workload and this may lead to backlogs or delays in submitting reports, which will result in their having to face the wrath of the BMC.
There are 17 laboratories conducting Covid-19 tests in the city. According to civic data, private and public laboratories conduct around 6,000 tests per day in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. More than three lakh people have so far been tested in Mumbai.
Vice-President of Thyrocare Chandrashekhar Mani said there were thrice as many calls since Wednesday morning than in the preceding days, for Covid testing and related queries. “We are getting three times more calls, emails and WhatsApp messages on Covid testing since the new policy has been implemented. Daily, we get around 200-300 calls but this number has increased to 600-700. We follow ICMR guidelines for testing,” he said.
Dr Ami Varaiya, Head Microbiology & Infection Control Officer, Nanavati Super-Speciality Hospital, welcomed the new government resolution on Covid testing. “There has been a 20-25 per cent increase in patient footfall for RT-PCR-based Covid testing at the hospital. While the government resolution has played a vital role, another positive aspect is that people are casting away their fear of Covid testing and the stigma attached to it. Reduced prices and increased access to Covid tests are extremely welcome steps by the government to contain the pandemic,” he said.
According to a Metropolis spokesperson, they had witnessed almost double the number of daily queries on Wednesday. “We ensure that details like symptoms or high-risk contacts are noted. Our team is geared to handle the spike and our goal is to issue reports within 24 hours. We have the capacity to conduct a few thousand tests per day,” he said.
