Mumbai: Daily Covid-19 tests see huge drop

A BMC health worker collects swab samples from a passenger at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus on Tuesday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

One of the reasons behind the decline in the number of daily Covid-19 tests being conducted in the city is that most passengers arriving in long-distance trains are fully vaccinated. Earlier, every passenger had to undergo Antigen or RT-PCR tests but with more and more vaccinations happening, the number of tests being conducted is also gradually reducing.

The number of daily Covid tests declined from 35,257 in October to 28,970 this month (November 1 to 6), almost a 20 per cent drop. "Earlier we were testing each and every passenger arriving in long-distance trains at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus. Now there is no need to test passengers who are fully vaccinated and asymptomatic. Even passengers who carry RT-PCR test reports do not need to be tested if they are asymptomatic. This is why the number of daily tests has come down. However, we still have 34 screening and testing teams in our ward and they are keeping a check," said Dr. Jitendra Jadhav, health officer of L ward.

Dr. Prajakta Amberkar, health officer of A ward, said, "We are still conducting screening and testing at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. But the focus has shifted to symptomatic passengers. People who are fully vaccinated but have symptoms are being tested. Even today we are conducting 700 to 800 Antigen tests and an almost equal number of RT-PCR tests daily. But the number has surely dropped as most of the passengers are either fully vaccinated or have RT-PCR test results with them and do not have symptoms."

The BMC started screening passengers at Borivli, Bandra, Mumbai Central, LTT, Dadar and CSTM stations on November 25 last year. However, some civic officials said that many passengers would manage to escape the tests and find ways to exit the stations without being checked.