14 KDMT buses to ferry asymptomatic Covid patients
Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) is preparing 14 of its civic buses to carry asymptomatic patients to quarantine centre.
Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) is preparing 14 of its civic buses to carry asymptomatic patients to quarantine centre.
The midi-buses will have a glass partition near the driver’s seat. A volunteer will guide the patients. The driver and the volunteer will be in PPE kit.
“The 20 ambulances of the civic body will be only for patients with symptoms, elderly patients and children. Asymptomatic patients will be sent in the bus. This will help decrease the load on ambulances and also ensure the patients are sent to the quarantine centre on Kalyan-Bhiwandi road without delay,” said Dipesh Mhatre, former standing committee chairman of KDMC, who approached the civic body chief Vijay Suryavanshi with the idea.
The civic body is using 28 private ambulances, of which, 12 are for cardiac patients and five for Covid patients.
“The buses will be sanitised throughout the day after patients are dropped at the centre,” said a KDMC officer.
Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Transport (KDMT) general manager Maruti Khodke said, “One civic bus is already transporting Covid patients twice a day. We have 28 midi buses, out of which, eight are for staffers of primary health care centres.”
