Mumbai civic body scales up coronavirus testing capacity

In a bid to contain the spread of Covid-19, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) laboratory at KEM Hospital in Parel will also from Thursday test samples

In a bid to contain the spread of Covid-19, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) laboratory at KEM Hospital in Parel will also from Thursday test samples of suspected cases of the coronavirus, increasing the city’s laboratory overall testing capacity to more than 350 samples daily, from the current 100 samples daily.

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Currently, only Kasturba hospital has a laboratory with a capacity to test 100 samples per day. The BMC will scale up the capacity of Kasturba hospital laboratory to test 250 samples per day from Wednesday, along with testing 150 samples at KEM hospital.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, said, “We will have a maximum capacity of 400 or even 500 samples a day. However, we are keeping our expectation to over 350.”

The BMC has also applied to the Central government for permission to start a laboratory at Sion Hospital, with a capacity to test 150 samples a day, and it is likely to come through by the end of the week, said Kakani.

Civic officials are also waiting Centre’s nod for private laboratories to start tests. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said, “It can be done only with the Central Government’s permission. Even after the government gives its nod, the laboratories will be required to use kits given from the Centre, which will be limited.”

Kakani said, “The KEM laboratory will do its first trial run on Wednesday, and the test results will be sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune for confirmation. Once the NIV corroborates with the results, full-fledged testing will begin from Thursday.”

At least four private laboratories have approached the state government to start testing. The laboratories need to have Biosafety level 3 clearance and permission from the central government to start testing. The state has sent proposals to the Centre. Currently, it takes three hours to conduct a test for corona, and six hours to complete the test, including loading and unloading time for the sample, Kakani explained. “Mumbai is not facing any burden for testing suspected samples. The cycle for any sample is restricted to 12 hours, which means a patient gets his test results within 12 hours.”

The quarantine centre at Kasturba Hospital presently has a capacity to accommodate 120 persons, but sees up to 60% occupancy daily, according to Kakani. All four civic-run tertiary care hospitals are equipped with ready quarantine centres. Kakani said, “A team of experts visited all four hospitals to check the quarantine systems, and they were found to be ready, in case of emergency. However, these quarantine centres will only be used if the one at Kasturba hospital is fully occupied.” The BMC is also in talks with 12 other private hospitals to start quarantine centres.