More than 1,000 Covid-19 patients untraceable in Mumbai

“These patients aren’t dead or admitted to hospitals or Covid-19 care centres. We aren’t aware of their whereabouts. Ward-wise, we have around 1,000 such missing patients,” said a senior BMC official.

As the number cases of Covid-19 rises to 65,329 in Mumbai, data from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) shows that since the beginning of the lockdown, more than 1,000 Covid-positive cases in the city are untraceable. Tracking patients and their close contacts are critical to curbing the spread of Covid-19.

According to BMC, of the missing patients, 60% are from slum pockets in the city. (Reuters file photo)

“These patients aren’t dead or admitted to hospitals or Covid-19 care centres. We aren’t aware of their whereabouts. Ward-wise, we have around 1,000 such missing patients,” said a senior BMC official.

Civic officials have also received complaints that ward officials hide discrepancies in the list of recovered patients.

“Every day, we get an update from ward officials. Some Covid-positive patients haven’t been tracked for over 30 days,” said the official. BMC is already facing criticism for anomalies in fatality cases in Mumbai.

Officials said many patients, fearing stigma, provide BMC with wrong addresses. Outstation patients often share phone numbers of their local guardian or contact. The issue of tracking patients becomes more challenging when the patients live in slums.

According to BMC, of the missing patients, 60% are from slum pockets in the city. “It is extremely challenging to track patients in slums without accurate addresses. Even after taking help from locals, we can’t track all the patients,” said the official.

Previously, BMC had constituted a group of teachers who were given the task of contacting family members of patients. This group found that most of the phone numbers they had were incorrect.

Now the corporation has sought help from Mumbai Police to trace these cases and their contacts.

“We are trying to pull out the correct address from Aadhaar or voter ID cards of patients through their names. This has helped us reach a large number of patients. We are also tracking their GPS coordinates to find their movement and location,” said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, BMC.

Health activists emphasised the importance of giving correct information to the authorities.

“Due to stigma, many patients provide wrong addresses. This exposes others around them to the infection, which further expands the chain of the virus,” said Dr Ravikant Singh.