Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal has said that the civic body never set any specified targets for coronavirus testing in the city, adding that it was always based on demand.
This comes at a time when opposition leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has alleged that the BMC is deliberately reducing testing to hide the number of COVID-19 cases in the city.
Fadnavis further accused the civic body of trying to keep the case count low by conducting Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) as compared to an RT-PCR test which is known to be more accurate with its final result. “In Mumbai where RT-PCR testing capacity is one lakh per day, the average per day testing is around 34,191 of which 30% tests are RAT,” the BJP leader said.
The BMC commissioner shared some figures explaining the reasoning behind the reduction in testing. “Our single-day highest testing between March 2020 and February 10, 2021, when the second wave started was 24,400. The average was around 12,000 to 14,000,” Chahal said while speaking to TOI.
Read - RT-PCR COVID-19 Testing Mandatory For Out of State Freight Drivers
“During the second wave, we touched 56,000 tests (per day), but testing dropped to 45,000 on an average after the lockdown as testing in malls/corporate group testing stopped,” Chahal added.
A majority of these tests were reportedly conducted after receiving calls for home testing from individuals. Chahal went on to say that the positivity rate touched 31 per cent at this time, adding that the demand for tests is now low since infections have come down.
Also read - Govt Panel Says Third Wave Of COVID-19 May Not Arrive Until October 2021
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