Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation tests for swine flu at its own lab for quicker action

So far, the H1-N1 samples of the suspect swine flu patients in the city were sent to NIV, Pune lab; with Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation testing the swine flu samples at its own lab now, the reports will be available faster that will help in suitable treatment of the patients at the earliest

To get quicker results, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s state-of-the-art RT-PCR lab developed during the Covid pandemic has now started testing for swine flu as well. The decision has been taken in view of the rising cases in the city.

Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation has begun testing for swine flu at its own lab for quicker action. (HT FILE PHOTO)

So far, the H1-N1 samples of the suspect swine flu patients in the city were sent to NIV, Pune lab. With NMMC testing the samples at its own lab now, the reports will be available faster that will help in suitable treatment of the patients at the earliest.

The first swine flu case in the city was detected on July 19. So far, 74,968 suspect swine flu patients have been screened in the OPD. Of these, 33 cases were confirmed and six of these patients are currently under treatment. As per the central health department guidelines, samples of five patients with severe symptoms have been taken for testing.

The 5,000 tests capacity lab started on August 4, 2020 has, in the past two years, tested 13,73,288 Covid samples.

NMMC has made arrangements for treating patients at its hospital in Vashi. The samples of these patients are being collected at the hospital itself and sent to the lab in the Nerul hospital.

On the precautionary measures being taken, Bangar said, “Pregnant women, high blood pressure or diabetic patients along with doctors, nurses and other medical staff involved in testing, treatment and care of swine flu patients are being given a vaccine dose at the three civic hospitals and 23 UHPs. So far, 1,499 doses have been administered.”