Even as the number of coronavirus cases have seen a significant rise this month, the health officials have raised concerns over underreported infections owing to a surge in the demand for COVID-19 self-testing kits.
The health officials termed these kits “a boon” as they have taken a significant load off the traditional testing infrastructure amid the third wave of the pandemic in Mumbai as home test kits that allows no official supervision on positive cases.
As per accounts, the number of tests conducted by the BMC in the city has remained consistently between 67,000 and 72,000.
Also Read: CoviSelf, a COVID-19 self-test kit that gives result in 15 minutes, is now available on Flipkart
A BMC official said: "The report of this test needs to be recorded through the scanner on the kit to reach the municipal administration. However, it has been observed that this is being ignored. Therefore, the corporation will now control it through drug dealers and medical stores. After selling the self-test kit, it will be mandatory to keep the report information in due time by recording the contact number and address of the person concerned."
Meanwhile, reports have stated that over the past four days as on January 10, self-test kits have reported around 3,000 positive results on average every day in Mumbai based on what has been uploaded to the ICMR portal. It has also come to light that chemists in Mumbai have been selling anywhere between 300 to 400 self-testing rapid antigen kits daily.
As many as seven self-test kits have been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research including Coviself by Mylab, CoviFind by Meril Diagnostics, PanBio by Abbott among others. These kits are affordable for the middle class, and range anywhere between ₹250 to ₹350.
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