Amid coronavirus scare, 'isolation wards in 12 private hospitals soon'

The four major civic hospitals in the city, including Sion, Cooper, Nair and KEM, receive around 42,000 patients every day in the outpatient department. File pic

While the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is working towards increasing the testing capacity in the city for COVID-19, four private labs in the city have come forward for testing. However, these labs would need permission from the Centre to run the tests. Twelve other private hospitals in the city will set up isolation wards soon, said a BMC official.

The civic-run lab at Kasturba hospital can test 250 samples a day for now. Even the KEM hospital lab with a capacity of 150 samples a day has not begun doing Corona tests yet. The queues at Kasturba are only growing longer each day. "The state government has so far received letters from four private labs to start the facility. But the permission needs to come from the Central government," said a civic official.

Ravi Raja, leader of opposition said people visiting Kasturba return without getting tested owing to the crowd. The BMC needs to allow more labs for testing.

Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner of the BMC, said, "The kits for the tests are provided by the Centre and people with symptoms, travel history or closed contact with Corona positive patients are given preference. We will soon increase the capacity with labs in KEM and Sion hospitals."

He said that a list of 12 private hospitals is ready with the BMC. They told us that the facility is ready and they can admit patients as per BMC's instructions. But the number of isolation beds in Kasturba is enough as of now and a new isolation facility with 20 beds has been started at HBT trauma care hospital from Tuesday. The lab facility at Kasturba will be upgraded too.

Private hospitals including Jaslok, Reliance, Fortis, Lilavati, and Bombay Hospital may be on the list of 12 hospitals.

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