Covid-19 testing in Mumbai to take a hit after private players barred

In Delhi too, SRL Diagnostics was told to stop testing certain categories of patients at the end of May for a few days, officials say

With Thyrocare Technologies and Metropolis Healthcare — two of the dominant private diagnostic labs — being barred in recent times from testing coronavirus (Covid-19) samples, the testing rate in Mumbai and Thane is likely to slow down, say industry players. 

According to Maharashtra  government data, about 47 per cent tests in the state have been done at private labs. 

In Mumbai city, which is the most affected, over 40 per cent of tests were conducted at private labs, claim sources.  However, the city’s testing rate was hovered around 4,000 per day in May, and has failed to pick up beyond that even in June. 

While Maharashtra’s overall positive rate was around 16 per cent, for Mumbai it was double at around 30 per cent. Civic officials had said earlier that this was due to targeted testing from fewer clinics. However, industry sources allege that the city administration wants to keep the testing rate low so that there are not many positives. 

“More tests simply mean more positive cases and that would put more pressure on the health infrastructure. It is not just private labs that at times cause delay in giving the reports, but sometimes we get queries from public labs to test samples that have been lying with them for over a week. It is curious that only large private labs are targeted, while the smaller ones seem to be doing fine,” said the chief executive officer (CEO) of a national chain, which operates in Mumbai. 

Meanwhile, the nation’s largest private diagnostics labs find themselves at the receiving end of government penalties for non-compliance with stipulated regulations. These pertain to the turnaround time for Covid tests as well as reporting patient data to the Indian Council of Medical Research. 

However, company officials said the shutdowns have hurt patients who have been told by doctors to get tested. 

Despite several attempts, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials could not be reached for a comment. Mumbai-based Metropolis Healthcare is the latest company to have been told by the state to stop carrying out Covid-19 tests after complaints that it took longer than the required 24 hours to submit results. On June 9, Metropolis, which tests a few thousand Covid-19 patients daily, was barred from collecting samples for a month in Mumbai. According to company officials, testing was also shut for a couple of weeks in April for similar reasons. 

Metropolis isn’t alone. Earlier, Thyrocare Technologies, too, was told to stop collecting samples for potential Covid-19 cases across the nation at 15 pin codes. This is because it was testing asymptomatic patients in some instances and there were quality concerns in others, its officials say. 

In Delhi, too, SRL Diagnostics was told to stop testing certain categories of patients at the end of May for a few days, officials said. 

Metropolis managing director Ameera Shah said, in her case, some of her employees were unwell and it led to a delay in data collection and submission to the relevant authorities. This led to the show cause notice and the revoking of service. 

“A complete stopping of collection of samples in Mumbai for Covid-19 tests means that residents of the city are denied the right to test in the city. This is a lose-lose situation for all in the face of the epidemic,” she said. 

“The solution is for each individual municipal corporation to decide where the Covid-19 numbers are going, figure out timelines and then enforce accountability with penalties commensurate to the violations,” Shah said.  

Thyrocare managing director Arokiaswamy Velumani said the big private labs are getting more tests done. This, in turn, is leading to more positive results. “Private labs keep getting blamed without adequate evidence and blaming them unilaterally and banning them is stretching things too much,” he said. He added that there is a need to have a third party that can judge quality of testing, and it has to be an independent agency.

There is, however, no argument to discontinue or slow down the pace of testing. “Globally, it’s been cited in the medical fraternity that the most effective way to battle the pandemic is to test, test, and test,” said SRL Diagnostics CEO Arindam Halder. Also, contact tracing can only be effective when testing works well. 

The Delhi administration has projected an explosion in cases in a month’s time, estimated to cross 500,000. Mumbai, surprisingly, has remained quiet when it came to such projections. With well over 50,000 cases, the country’s most densely populated city needs to test extensively to know the extent of the pandemic spread.