The second wave: Covid-19 testing labs look at ways to ramp up capacity

Now demand is growing almost 100 per cent week-on-week, leading to a testing crisis, said an industry insider.

Abhishek Ghosh (name changed) is flying to Canada this week from Mumbai to start a new job. Before boarding the flight, he has to get an RT-PCR test to show he is negative for Covid-19. On Monday, most laboratories in Mumbai were refusing to collect his sample, neither from home nor even from the collection centre he visited to deposit his sample when no one would come home.
 
Of the around one million RT-PCR tests conducted per day nationwide, around 50 per cent are at private labs. Last April, the share of private labs was only around 10 per