Focus on contact-tracing, better coordination: BMC chief to Covid task force

After two back-to-back review meetings on Saturday and Sunday with the Covid-19 task force in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) comprising top bureaucrats,

After two back-to-back review meetings on Saturday and Sunday with the Covid-19 task force in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) comprising top bureaucrats, senior most municipal officials, and assistant commissioners of wards, Mumbai’s new civic commissioner IS Chahal outlined a strategy to battle Covid-19 in the city which includes enhanced contact-tracing efforts, decentralisation of work to administrative wards, careful identification of high-risk contacts, better inter-ward coordination, and optimal usage of beds.

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A civic official said, “Two review meetings with similar agendas were conducted on Saturday and Sunday. All civic officials and top bureaucrats working on Covid-19 were divided in two groups for the meeting to maintain social distancing norms. Twelve ward officers attended the first meeting, and the remaining 12 attended the second meeting.”

Chahal has asked the administration to increase the average number of contacts traced for each Covid-19 positive person to six people, from the present average of 3 people. Once these contacts are identified, they are to be moved to institutional quarantine facilities immediately and are to be closely monitored over 14 days, which is the number of days for incubation period of the virus according to the present official protocol. Chahal also asked officials to channel maximum efforts toward tracing high-risk contacts of positive patients.

Saying that each assistant commissioner is equivalent to the municipal commissioner in their respective ward, the BMC chief said they have complete responsibility of all developments and activities in their respective wards. Assistant commissioners are tasked with delegating dedicated responsibility to ward staffers and ensuring the delegated work is done as per schedule. They have also been asked to conduct periodic review meetings with staff members at their ward, equivalent to the municipal commissioner’s review meetings for the entire city. The officials present in the meeting were told to “be aware of even the minute details of Covid-19 related developments and trends in your ward”, according to one official.

After BMC earned flak for the incident at Sion hospital, wherein a video showing bodies of dead patients wrapped in black body bags were seen lying on beds alongside patients went viral on social media, Chahal told all assistant commissioners that the sole responsibility of everything that goes on in the hospitals under a ward’s jurisdiction lies with the respective assistant commissioner. The assistant commissioners have also been asked to look at bed management and ensuring availability of beds at each hospital.

Regarding containment zones, Chahal has ordered result oriented management in each containment zone with fever camps and strict lockdown protocol. Each containment zone will get a ‘Covid warrior’ for better management of activities, including essential supplies. Local elected representatives will also be roped in for help.

For inter-ward coordination, Chahal is known to have told assistant commissioners of wards, which are witnessing over-burdened usage of beds, to coordinate with wards where beds are available for better management. The city will also get new ambulances as BMC plans to give each of the 100 Covid centres in the city two ambulances each. All 24 wards will be individually reviewed by the new municipal commissioner in the upcoming week.