BMC aims to increase Covid doubling rate to 20 days by May 17

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), in a bid to bring down the number of Covid-19 cases in the city, which has crossed the 11,000-mark, aims to increase

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), in a bid to bring down the number of Covid-19 cases in the city, which has crossed the 11,000-mark, aims to increase the doubling rate in the city to 20 days from the current 10 by May 17. On April 26, there were 5,407 cases in the city, which doubled to 11,394 on Thursday.

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To increase the doubling rate, the civic body has planned measures such as enforcing lockdown in containment zones, conducting aggressive house-to-house surveys, opening more fever clinics, identifying vulnerable senior citizens and admitting more number of suspected patients.

BMC has deployed a team of seven senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers and has assigned each of them with a zone. Every day, the officers will visit their respective zones and conduct briefings via video conferences. The IAS officers assigned with the task include additional municipal commissioners A Jarhad, Jayashree Bhoj and P Velrasu; additional municipal commissioner (health) Suresh Kakani; Covid-19 task force member Manisha Mhaiskar; former Navi Mumbai civic commissioner Dr N Ramaswami and former Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation managing director Ashwini Bhide.

The deployment was decided in a meeting with chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and members of the central government team on Thursday. A circular issued by outgoing civic commissioner Praveen Pardeshi stated, “The above mentioned additional municipal commissioners will ensure actions in most effective and efficient manner so as to improve the positive case doubling rate from the current 10 days to 20 days by May 17, 2020. They will personally visit their zones every day from morning till 2pm and attend office post 3pm. A debriefing will be taken by the undersigned [Pardeshi] daily at 6pm via video conferencing. They will mobilise staff to get the works entrusted to them from all resources.”

The action plan drafted by BMC read, “Mapping of positive cases, contact tracing, high risk, low risk etc. Strict enforcement of containment zones, house to house survey, identifying comorbid senior citizens and their further treatment, fever clinics, facilitate private nursing homes, clinics, hospitals to operate followed by testing of symptomatic persons, creation and operation of health infrastructure, community participation by involvement of community leaders.”

A deputy municipal commissioner who attended Thursday’s meeting, said, “There is no special technique to increase the doubling rate of positive cases in the city, but if we conduct an aggressive door-to-door survey and identify suspects, we are able to minimise the transmission. This indirectly will increase our doubling rate in the city. Increasing the doubling rate does not means we have to detect lesser cases, but it means early detection to prevent further spread.”

The officer added, “The increase in the detection of cases each day will mean that despite rise in cases, we are detecting and isolating patients, by which we are avoiding transmission. This will bring down the doubling rate in the coming days.”

The BMC has has projected around 75,000 cases by end of the month going at the present rate. It said that though the curve is not going up drastically, it is preparing for a worst-case scenario.

Nikhil Desai, a civic activist from Matunga, said, “There are so many complaints that people are not getting tested or getting admitted despite having symptoms relating to coronavirus. Despite claims of increased number of beds at hospitals and testing capacity, the fact is citizens are not able to get tested or admitted. Also, despite the fact that many senior citizens are at greater risk, there is no proper identification of elderly patients with suspected symptoms.”