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.