COVID-19: BMC to rope in private labs to ramp up antigen tests

Civic health workers screen the residents of Dr. Ambedkar Nagar at Dharavi near Mahim Nature Park. When asked why they were not wearing PPE, some of them said they find it unsafe to walk in it in dirty water. Pics/Suresh Karkera

In order to extend the scope of rapid antigen tests and to ensure that more of it is conducted in the upcoming days, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has issued a proposal saying that it will provide private labs with the test kits and cost of testing as well, and in return they would send their teams to the testing sites to conduct them. The civic body will ask for an Expression of Interest (EoI) from the private players in the next couple of days.

Till now, a total of 3.60 lakh real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) COVID-19 tests have been conducted in the city. Though the RT-PCR tests are the most efficient, the rapid antigen tests are quicker in terms of giving results because the diagnosis is done within 30 minutes. Hence, after getting approval from the ICMR for antigen tests, the civic body ordered 1-lakh antigen test kits worth of R4.5 crore, approximately R450 per kit.

Members of NGO 'Doctors For You' screen Dharavi residents on Monday

Currently the ratio of tests conducted stands at 27,000 per 10 million people. In a bid to increase the ratio, the BMC has started conducting antigen tests in areas like Malad, Kandivli and Borivli, which have a high COVID-19 growth rate. "The civic body has taken help from private labs to conduct RT-PCR tests as well. The new initiative will help increase the number of tests and will also make it available to more people," said a senior BMC official.

Of the total number of kits that the BMC has received, some have been distributed among four civic-run medical colleges - KEM, LTM (Sion), Nair and Cooper. The tests will be conducted at these locations. However, the civic body thinks that the manpower already available is not enough, and hence, needs more to ramp up testing across the city.

Speaking to mid-day, Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner of BMC, said, "We haven't decided which private laboratories will be roped in for the work. The BMC will ask for an EOI and then decide on the partnership. The aim is to increase the number of tests across Mumbai so that maximum people get access to it."

The civic body would also set up camps at Containment Zones, hotspots and quarantine centres. A civic source said that in case of rapid antigen tests if the result comes positive, then that would be considered as final, but if the result turns out to be negative and the person is symptomatic, then an RT-PCR test would be conducted.

1 lakh
No. of rapid antigen test kits BMC has purchased

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