BMC Bars Mumbai’s Largest Lab From Conducting COVID Tests

BMC Bars Mumbai’s Largest Lab From Conducting COVID Tests

“The top 4 lab chains provide 50 to 60 per cent of the private testing in the country,” said Ameera Shah, Managing Director of Metropolis

Mumbai’s civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday, 12 June barred Mumbai's largest private laboratory from conducting coronavirus tests.

The laboratory in question, Metropolis Laboratory, will be banned from testing for the next four weeks.

Ameera Shah, Managing Director of Metropolis to NDTV.“The top 4 lab chains provide 50 to 60 per cent of the private testing in the country.”

Amid Mumbai's rising cases, will this move slow down the testing capacity and hurt an already struggling city further?

At 47980 active cases today, Maharashtra is in dire need of quick and efficient testing.

The ban comes after complaints about delays and the BMC order states that delays in reporting the test results led to difficulties in contact tracing. This could lead to delays in treatments and often death, reported NDTV.

The BMC issued a directive on 5 June saying that all covid-19 samples must be tested within 24 hours.

Also Read: Why Are Hospitals Insisting on Testing All Patients for COVID-19?

According to the news channel, Metropolis had admitted to the delays and added that they were caused due to their staff getting infected. They said there was only a small percentage of delays.

Metropolis’ Shah claimed the lack of manpower was the reason behind the delay, saying “COVID testing is a highly manual process which requires highly skilled workers. This is not (an) automated system that can just roll in thousands per day like other tests. And therefore, we all have to really ramp up the number of skilled manpower. When our employees get sick or when our employees don't show up to work in fear or (when) vendors don't provide kits on time, we're stuck and we're not able to provide the results on time, in a 24-hour turnaround time.”

Reportedly, the lab Thyrocare in Thane was barred for their false positives - that is when the intial COVID test is positive but the second one comes out as negative. They have even been issued a notice by the Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation for their errors.

Also Read: Delhi LG Overrules CM, Says Asymptomatic Contacts Must Be Tested