In order to scale up daily testing capacity for diagnosing coronavirus, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has drawn up a plan to conduct over 1,000 tests daily with the help of private hospitals and laboratories.
A meeting was held between municipal commissioner Praveen Pardeshi and several health officials, along with representatives from private labs and hospitals.
Currently, Kasturba Hospital can conduct 150 tests daily and the same will increase to 250 in the coming one week, followed by KEM handling around 150 tests. Further, private labs including Reliance HN Hospital, SRL Lab, Metropolis, Hinduja Hospital, Thyrocare and Infection Laboratary can do around 1,050 tests daily, if required, in the coming days.
However, private labs will carry out test for persons referred by the BMC, and will target persons who are asymptomatic but have travel history and or contact with a positive person.