Now doctor's prescription not required for COVID-19 test in Mumbai

BMC staff wearing PPE kits snapped on Hill Road in Bnadra. Picture/Shadab Khan

In a bid to check the rising number of coronavirus cases in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has revised its testing guidelines in which one can get a COVID-19 test done without a doctor's prescription in accordance to ICMR guidelines. The decision was taken on Tuesday and Maharashtra's Tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray took to Twitter to conform the same.

Taking to the micro-blogging site, Thackeray said that the civic body has decided to open up testing to any individual in the city without prescription/ self attestation. The state cabinet minister further said that this decision will help citizens feel safer and test when they have a doubt, without any delays.

The civic body's move comes after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) instructed them to increase their testing capacity. On an average, the BMC conducts about 4,000 to 4,500 tests daily. Earlier, a doctor's prescription was mandatory for patients to undergo the COVID-19 test.

Earlier in the day, the civic body said that over 15 lakh people have been quarantined in Mumbai after contact-tracing since the outbreal of the novel coronavirus. Out of these, 5.34 lakh people were identified as high-risk contacts, the BMC said. While 13.28 lakh people have completed their 14-day quarantine, at present 2.46 lakh people are under home quarantine and 14,288 under institutional quarantine.

The country's richest civic body also said that it has acquired several hotels, guest houses, gymkhanas, halls and other places for institutional quarantine and isolation purposes. Mumbai reported 85,326 COVID-19 cases and 4,935 deaths due to the disease, BMC said.

With inputs from PTI

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