Mumbai’s first private Covid-19 testing centre in parking lot now operational

Five private labs —SRL Limited, Thyrocare Technologies, Metropolis Laboratory, Infexn Laboratories and Suburban Diagnostic Centre — will set up testing centres for Covid-19 which will carry out 3,000 tests daily, in 17 parking lots across Mumbai

The first of the private testing centres operating out of a parking lot in Mumbai started testing for Covid-19 in Oshiwara on Saturday. This is one of 17 public parking lots identified by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to set up clinics so that more people may be tested for Sars-Cov-2, which causes Covid-19. The remaining clinics will be operational by next week.

A doctor wearing a protective suit stores a swab in a test tube after taking it from a man to test for coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at a residential area in Mumbai, India, April 8, 2020. (REUTERS)

The BMC also plans to increase the capacity of fever clinics where treatment will be for free. Currently, there are 10 fever clinics in the city, which have so far diagnosed five cases of Covid-19.

According to the Maharashtra health department, Mumbai reported 138 new cases and 12 deaths on Saturday, taking the total number of cases to 1,146 in the city.

Five private labs —SRL Limited, Thyrocare Technologies, Metropolis Laboratory, Infexn Laboratories and Suburban Diagnostic Centre — will set up testing centres which will carry out 3,000 tests daily, in 17 parking lots across the city. The locations include Indiabulls Finance Centre at Prabhadevi; Kohinoor Mill in Dadar; Club Aquaria parking in Borivli (West); Birla Krida Kendra at Chowpatty; service road outside NESCO exhibition centre in Goregaon (East); a parking lot near Hub Mall in Goregaon (West); and parking lots in Byculla, Kalachowki, Sewri, Mulund and Kanjurmarg.

Additional municipal commissioner P Velrasu said, “We are identifying wide service roads on the highway. Seventeen parking lots have been identified. The testing at one parking lot has started. At others, it will start from the coming week. We plan to augment the capacity of our fever clinics too by engaging private labs. They will test more people in containment zones. And if swab tests are required, we will reimburse the labs.” Testing centres on western and eastern express highways will be ‘drive-through’, meaning those giving samples for testing need not leave their vehicles.

BMC is also training 1,709 resident doctors, 417 interns, 662 students and 468 nursing students in order to add to the manpower of the medical teams.

According to data released by the BMC for 993 positive cases in Mumbai, the maximum number are from G/South Ward, comprising Worli and Prabhadevi. Nearly 50% of the total cases reported are from four wards in the city: G/South Ward (243 cases); E Ward, which includes Byculla, Mumbai Central and Mazagaon (104 cases); D ward, which includes Malabar Hill, Chowpatty, Grant Road (66 cases); and H/East ward, which includes Bandra (East) (59 cases).

Of the 44 new positive cases reported on Saturday from the G/North ward, 28 were from Dharavi where one death was also reported. BMC said it will screen around 7 lakh residents of Dharavi over the next two weeks.

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