Covid-19: BMC increases daily test numbers and vaccine quota as cases spike

Citing vaccination as the “ultimate remedy” for Covid-19, BMC said that the number of daily vaccinations in Mumbai has been raised to 1 lakh.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to increase their daily number of Covid-19 tests to 60,000 tests, the civic authorities said in a press release on Thursday as the number of daily infections in the city is on a steady rise.

The civic authority assured citizens that the current situation is nothing to be worried over as the mortality rate remains as low as 0.3% (PTI Photo/Kunal Patil) (PTI)

“Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai has resolved to take up testing to more than 60,000 per day in coming weeks,” said the press release tweeted by BMC.

BMC on March 20 had decided to conduct 47,000 random RT-PCR tests per day in crowded places in the wake of the rising number of cases in the capital city. As per BMC’s press statement, a total of 5365 people had tested positive for Covid-19 during yesterday’s random testing. The positivity rate of Mumbai now stands at 12 per cent, with the per cent of asymptomatic cases being pegged at 84%.

Citing vaccination as the “ultimate remedy” for Covid-19, BMC said that the number of daily vaccinations in Mumbai has been raised to 1 lakh.

“We have completed 10 lakh vaccinations today and have resolved to increase vaccinations to 1 lakh per day in Mumbai,” stated the civic body.

BMC has also decided to increase the number of available beds in Dedicated Covid Health Centres (DCHC) to 21,000 from the present 13,773, within the next 15 days. Some 5,140 beds in Mumbai’s DCHC are currently lying vacant.

“Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai has decided to gear up the total availability of DCHC/DCH Covid beds in Mumbai from 13,773 (out of which 5,140 are vacant) to 21,000 Covid beds in the next 15 days,” it said.

This has been done based on the assumption that over the course of time cases under the jurisdiction of BMC will increase to 10,000 per day, of which 15% will be symptomatic thus requiring beds for a period of 14 days, as per the guidelines laid down by ICMR.

The civic authority assured citizens that the current situation is nothing to be worried over as the mortality rate remains as low as 0.3%, and urged all Mumbaikars to exercise caution and maintain Covid appropriate behaviour.