While testing is the only way to ascertain if an area is free of COVID-19, concerns are beginning to emerge through the cracks. While private individuals can get tested in a private facility by paying a fee, this is not feasible for everyone. Further, the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) has mentioned that it will only test patients with symptoms, which could prove to be costly given that one of the biggest risks of the virus is its spreading by asymptomatic or undetected patients.
So it’s no surprise that private testing facilities are currently outpacing government assigned laboratories as far as the quantum of testing is concerned. The BMC conducts tests at institutions like Kasturba and KEM hospital, which are reportedly conducting around 700 tests per day.
Mumbai is undeniably seeing more tests than any other city of Maharashtra with nearly 55,000 of the 96,369 samples tested in Maharashtra coming from the region.
A senior BMC official said that the city conducts somewhere between 2,700 and 3,000 tests a day and that a large number of these tests come from private laboratories. Officials mentioned that private institutions are more efficient given that they have a better testing infrastructure in place.
It is not recommended to get a walk-in test due to the possibility of inadvertent exposure to the virus, while private laboratories are reportedly not allowing people without a doctor’s prescription. A frustrated private lab official said - “We don’t allow walkin tests. Also, people want to be tested the day after they were exposed to the virus. They don’t seem to realize that it will take five to seven days for the viral load to increase enough to be detected.”
As for the issue of potentially bankrupting families with testing costs, Malini Aisola, Co-Convenor of the All India Drug Action Network said - “The burden must not fall on families because for many the costs would be prohibitive and act as financial barriers to testing. Not only is it the government’s duty to provide free testing but this is also a critical tool for containing the outbreak.”
A Mumbai family was reported to have spent around Rs 36,000 to get their entire family tested. One member from the family had previously tested positive and subsequently succumbed to the virus. The brother of the deceased said that the BMC wouldn’t test him as it changed the protocol for testing. The authorities tested his elderly parents as they were considered to be in the high-risk bracket. It has now been revealed that the brother has also tested positive for the coronavirus.
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