Following Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) announcement of new rules, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has stopped random testing at railway stations, beaches, markets and crowded places.
Owing to this, daily tests have seen a drop by 10,000. However, the officials have attributed this to lower number of positive cases. Before the new rules were announced, over 70,000 people were tested daily in the city, but the figure has now come down to about 60,000.
The number of daily tests, comprising antigen and RT-PCR, came down by almost 10,000 in the last two-three days, after implementing ICMR guidelines. It includes tests at railway stations as well as crowded places. But we are doing targeted testing and it is adequate to trace positive patients, said a civic health official.
The secretary of the Maharashtra unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said there is a need to test and find asymptomatic patients, who reportedly could become the silent carriers of the virus. He also stated that tracing the asymptomatic contacts of COVID-19 patients is an important step to curb the spread from the asymptomatic carriers. Random testing at public places helps identify the positive cases.
Moreover, even tests at the completion of the quarantine period have stopped and the wards don't have a set target for daily tests anymore.
Earlier, the civic body conducted random antigen and RT-PCR tests of people at crowded places, and at railway stations where the long-distance trains arrive. Each ward had a target for daily tests, depending upon the population and crowding.
The ICMR guidelines added that it was not necessary to test the contacts of positive patients unless they are high-risk based on age and comorbidity. Even the interstate domestic passengers have been excluded from the mandatory testing list. People who complete quarantine and are discharged from hospitals also do not need to be tested again.
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