BMC tweaks testing protocol, asymptomatic COVID contacts to be tested post isolation

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday modified its testing protocol and procedure amid rising COVID-19 cases in Mumbai. It has w decided to conduct tests for asymptomatic patients only after seven days of quarantine to avoid possibility of "false negatives". Until w, BMC was conducting swab tests of high- risk contacts of positive patients as soon as y were quarantined. This also comes as a U-turn after BMC issued a circular on April 12 that it will prioritise testing of symptomatic high-risk contacts of Covid-19 patients over asymptomatic ones.

tably,  Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guideline states that all asymptomatic high-risk contacts are to be tested between fifth and 14th day of suspected exposure. However, BMC's own data shows that at least 60% to 70% of coronavirus cases in Mumbai till w have been asymptomatic.

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community transmission 

civic body clarified that re has been community transmission of infection in Mumbai, which has reported over 2,000 coronavirus cases so far. Additionally,  circular said that it had conducted over 27,000 COVID-19 tests, which is 12.59 percent of total number of tests carried out in country so far.

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According to release, civic body has set up 97 fever clinics across city and 3,585 persons were screened at se facilities, which are located near containment zones where one or more COVID-19 cases were reported. Of 912 persons tested at se clinics, only five were found to be positive, thus ruling out possibility of community transmission, civic body claimed. release also stated that over 6,000 people had used civic body's helpline for medical advice about coronavirus. 

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Coronavirus cases in Mumbai

Seeing a slight dip in number of cases in India's financial capital, Mumbai's civic body- BMC on Thursday, reported that 107 new Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases were added in past 24 hours. city also witnessed 3 deaths taking city's fatalities to 116. city tops state with 2043 cases - amounting to Maharashtra's tally of 2919 cases and 187 deaths.

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