4 more test positive for Covid at Mankhurd children’s home

Four more persons from the Mankhurd Mentally Deficient Children’s Home (MDCH) tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday. The fresh cases include a specially-abled

Four more persons from the Mankhurd Mentally Deficient Children’s Home (MDCH) tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday. The fresh cases include a specially-abled minor.

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Last week, 30 residents of the MDCH tested positive for Covid-19, including four minors. HT had first reported the spread of infection at the children’s home in its July 26 edition.

On Wednesday a minor boy, cook, cleaner, and another staff member tested positive. “The four new patients are asymptomatic and have been admitted to the Covid care centre at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC). Twenty-seven patients who tested positive earlier, are also undergoing treatment at the same centre, while three are receiving treatment at Sion hospital,” said Vikrant Gondane, in-charge designated at the facility by the commissionerate for persons with disabilities, for Covid management.

The authority at the children’s home is conducting an internal inquiry, to identify how the infection spread there.

It is suspected that the Sars-Cov2 virus, which causes Covid-19, spread from staffers who share residential quarters with staff for other state-funded children’s institutions. Three staffers from one of these other facilities had tested positive earlier and one of them succumbed to the infection.

Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of parliament (MP) Kirit Somaiya had taken up the matter with the state human rights commission. “The government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have been slapped with notices in this regard by the commission. The commission will hear the matter on August 6,” Somaiya said.

Mankhurd MDCH, which is run by the NGO Children Aid Society with funding from the state, houses 268 individuals with mental disabilities up to 70 years of age. Since 2012, only specially-abled children below 18 years are allowed admission.