‘Close contacts of Covid-19 patient were not tested for 48 hours’

Residents of a slum pocket in Govandi alleged that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s health team of M-East ward did not test symptomatic high-risk contacts

Residents of a slum pocket in Govandi alleged that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s health team of M-East ward did not test symptomatic high-risk contacts of a Covid-19 patient for 48 hours.

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Four of the six locals, who helped the patient reach Rajawadi Hospital on March 24, had tested positive. The residents are alleging that the cry for help of these four locals was ignored by the civic body for 48 hours as no help was offered until these locals got themselves tested and were found positive.

On March 24, a senior citizen from Panchsheel Chawl of Limun Baugh area had collapsed in her house as she was diabetic and was declared dead due to the virus at the Rajawadi Hospital two days later. The locals who helped her reach the hospital approached the BMC to get themselves tested as they were among the high-risk contacts. After waiting for more than a day and with no response from the health department, the six people looked for a nearby health camp and got themselves tested. They were found positive for Covid-19 on Thursday and were quarantined soon after.

Shrushti Salve, a resident of the Panchsheel Chawl said, “We are appalled by the BMC’s handling of the health crisis in our area. Our slum is densely populated and we use common toilets, and yet the BMC took five days to set up a health camp in the area. The senior citizen died on Sunday and the health camp in the area was set up on Friday. Meanwhile, the four people developed some symptoms and had to get themselves tested. This is a serious lapse.”

Denying their allegations, the BMC said that all arrangements of fever camps, screenings of people and sanitisation of the area is being done on a regular basis. Sudhanshu Dwivedi,assistant commissioner of M-east ward, said, “The health camps and screening of people are already in place. We cannot test asymptomatic people for a couple of days which is as per the guidelines. There are 12 health camps in the entire ward. We are scaling up the facilities and doing our best to contain the spread of the virus. Also, we are sanitising common toilets on a daily basis and we are managing all of this with limited manpower.”

The residents further said that the family members of the senior citizen, who died due to Covid-19, were not tested until yesterday. They alleged that the family members were not called by the BMC for the tests and that they voluntarily got themself tested. Their reports are yet to come. Shankar Patil, another resident of the area, said, “Some of the family members have some symptoms since few days and were only tested on Friday when the health camp in our area was set up. The BMC did not take this seriously at first which has led to so many people getting infected.”