Maharashtra Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday informed that the citizens can get themselves tested without prescription at their own will. This will help citizens feel safer, he added.
“The BMC has decided to open up testing to any individual in the city without prescription/ self attestation. Labs can now conduct RT PCR tests as per ICMR guidelines at the will of anyone. This will help citizens feel safer and test when they have a doubt, without any delays (sic),” Thackeray tweeted.
The @mybmc has decided to open up testing to any individual in the city without prescription/ self attestation. Labs can now conduct RT PCR tests as per ICMR guidelines at the will of anyone. This will help citizens feel safer and test when they have a doubt, without any delays.
— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) July 7, 2020
Earlier, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced that coronavirus tests in Mumbai could be conducted without a prescription. Citizens can now get tested for COVID-19 in private labs without a prescription from doctor or self-declaration, the civic body said in an order issued on July 7.
BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal has taken this decision owing to the rise in the number of private testing laboratories and their capacity. The BMC is set to ramp up testing in Mumbai and has decided to allow citizens to get themselves tested for the coronavirus without a prescription.
In a release, the civic body has announced that the laboratories are allowed to conduct RT PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests for any individual in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Moreover, the rates for each test will remain ₹2,500 for those who walk into a private lab to get swab samples tested for the coronavirus and if the swab samples have been collected from home the maximum charge shall not be more than ₹2,800.
As per the release, the BMC said that those who test COVID-19 positive will be allotted a hospital bed through ward-level ‘War Rooms’ of the civic body. Also, those who are in institutional quarantine will be discharged only when they test negative.
Maharashtra has been one of the worst-hit states due to the coronavirus outbreak. The number of COVID-19 cases in the state has reached 2,17,121 while the death toll has touched 9,250.
On Tuesday, nearly 5,134 COVID-19 cases were reported in Maharashtra and 785 in Mumbai. Meanwhile, 225 fresh COVID-19 deaths were reported in the state and 64 in Mumbai.
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