BMC directs ward officers, private practitioners to monitor Covid-19 clusters

The directive comes following a slight spike in the daily Covid-19 cases reported in Mumbai over the past week

Mumbai: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) last week directed private general practitioners, municipal dispensaries and assistant commissioners of the 24 wards of Mumbai to keep an eye on Covid-19 cases reported in clusters. Additionally, assistant commissioners have also been asked to carry out contact tracing of up to 15 high-risk contacts and enforce home or institutional quarantine.

On Monday, Mumbai reported 45 fresh cases (HT PHOTO)

However, the authorities have not yet come across any clusters in the city as single cases are being reported with one or two high-risk contacts testing positive.

The directive comes following a slight spike in the daily Covid-19 cases reported in Mumbai over the past week with low cases on a few days. On Monday, Mumbai reported 45 fresh cases, on Sunday city had reported 73, while 72 people tested positive on Saturday.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner in charge of BMC’s public health department said, “Ward-level authorities have been given four specific directions last week: To monitor cases and identify clusters if reported, to carry out 1:15 contact tracing, to enforce quarantine strictly, and speed up vaccination in their respective areas. General practitioners have been directed to recommend testing to any person who walks in with influenza-like symptoms and to monitor for cluster cases.”

“We have not identified any clusters in Mumbai yet. Only one or two cases are being reported,” Kakani added.

He further said that higher surveillance is in place for international travellers and it is continued after they return to Mumbai.

Maharashtra government had on April 21 directed all municipal commissioners and collectors across the state to monitor clusters of cases, send all atypical presentations and cluster cases for genome sequencing, and speed up vaccination amid the sight spike in cases.

Presently, Mumbai has no active containment zones in slums or chawls, and no high-rise building has been sealed.

According to BMC’s Covid-19 dashboard, the highest number of active cases are in the K/West ward (70) corresponding to the area of Andheri West, followed by 60 cases in the H/West ward of Bandra West, 37 active cases in the D ward in Malabar Hill.

In the past seven days, the H/West ward has the comparatively highest growth rate of covid-19 cases in the city at 0.017%, followed by the A ward at 0.16%, and the F/South ward of Parel at 0.15%. However, according to BMC, none of these areas has reported cases in clusters, and the situation is under control.

Out of the 45 cases reported on Monday in Mumbai, 44 or 98% are asymptomatic, and one positive patient needed hospitalisation but not an oxygen bed. Out of the 26,044 beds available for Covid-19 patients, 19 or 0.07% are occupied at present.

In the 24 hours until Monday, 5,053 tests were conducted in Mumbai, and the test positivity rate stands at 0.89%.