MUMBAI: The civic body will shortly come out with an advisory asking Mumbaikars to get tested for Covid on the first day of developing symptoms, including cold, cough, fever, among others. They should not wait even if they don’t have any of the classic signs of the ailment.
The reason: emerging mortality data has pointed towards a delay in seeking tests, and thereby time lost in starting treatment. Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani confirmed that the BMC will be emphasising on early testing since minimising testing delay has the highest impact on reducing onward transmission and curbing severity. The city has 244 testing facilities that offer both RT-PCR and antigen tests.
“All data point towards the fact that early testing and treatment can make a big dent in mortality rates,” he said. “If there is a delay right from the testing stage, it leads to delay in starting treatment and hospitalisation. We want to avoid that cascading effect,” Kakani said.
The civic hospitals have begun an exercise to gauge the time taken between swab collection and hospitalisation. Preliminary findings have shown a gap of a few days. In Andheri’s SevenHills Hospital, dean Dr Balakrishna Adsul said deaths have been predominantly in individuals who have delayed testing and treatment. “In some cases, people have got tested on the ninth and 10th day, by which time the disease had spread to the lungs,” he said.
Early testing is not just for clinical reasons but also has epidemiological importance, said Dr Rahul Pandit, a member of the state Covid task force. “Now, with monoclonal antibodies we can prevent severe disease by early detection,” he said.
