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Mumbai to see more rapid antigen tests
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to procure more rapid antigen kits and increase the number of teams to carry out the aggressive testing in more
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to procure more rapid antigen kits and increase the number of teams to carry out the aggressive testing in more areas across the city in phases.
BMC had procured one lakh kits in the first week of July from a South Korean firm, which was the only company approved by ICMR. On July 2, BMC had announced that it would start rapid antigen tests at five wards with the most Covid-19 cases then – R-North (Dahisar), R-Central (Borivli West), R-South (Kandivli), P-North (Malad) and P-South (Goregaon). However, the plan was later extended to all 24 administrative wards. The civic body has so far tested 17,331 people, of whom, 1,460 have tested positive for Covid-19, with a positivity rate of 8.4%.
Senior civic officials said the rapid antigen testing has been getting good response. Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, said, “Apart from the frontline staff and shopkeepers, there is a significant number of local citizens approaching health camps for the tests. We are going to procure more rapid antigen test kits in the future. We want to focus on finding maximum Covid positives and quarantine them at our centres. Our immediate plan is to increase the number of testing teams from 34 to 50 and take one ward at a time. This will help cover more areas quickly.”
Rapid antigen kits deliver test results within 15-20 minutes, but are less sensitive compared to RT-PCR tests. BMC will on priority test frontline workers using the kits. Of the total tests, 2,443 were on BMC staff from the solid waste department, 16 of whom have tested positive. Further, 1,525 employees of the Mumbai Police were tested and 31 came positive.
With the rise in cases in Borivli and Dahisar, BMC on Friday tested 220 hawkers, street vendors and shopkeepers in Dahisar using the kits. All of them tested negative. Vishwas Shankarwar, deputy municipal commissioner of zone 7 covering Borivli, Dahisar and Kandivli, said, “All of them were asked to visit the health camp in advance. We wanted to trace the transmission of the virus as many positive patients just got out of their house only to buy groceries and vegetables. So we decided to test all vendors and shopkeepers. We will continue testing our frontline staff and hawkers.”
Meanwhile, on Monday, Mumbai recorded 1,021 Covid-19 cases and 39 deaths. The city’s case count has reached 110,182 and toll is 6,132, according to the state health department data. As per BMC’s data, of the 39 deaths, one was of a patient below 40 years of age, 26 above 60 years, and 12 between 40 and 60 years.
The data further stated that 1,706 patients were discharged on Monday. A total of 81, 944 patients have been treated and discharged so far. The number of active patients in the city is 21, 812. The recovery rate of the city is 73%. The number of Covid tests done till Sunday is 4.85 lakh. Meanwhile, Dharavi reported nine new cases on Monday, taking the total to 2,540.
Medical education department secretary transferred
The state government on Monday transferred the secretary of medical education department that governs several government hospitals, including Sir JJ Hospital, in Mumbai. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray reshuffled four IAS officers on Monday. Higher and technical education department’s secretary Saurabh Vijay has been appointed as the head of the medical education department and will replace Dr Sanjay Mukherjee. Rajiv Jalota has been appointed as the additional chief secretary of higher and technical education department. SVR Srinivas has been appointed as the principal secretary, housing department, while Jalal Sharma has been appointed as the additional municipal commissioner of Nagpur Municipal Corporation.
