Mumbai civic body’s main concern: How do we urge citizens to be at home amid coronavirus outbreak

With the city reporting its highest daily spurt of Covid-19 cases at eight new cases on Saturday, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) health officers are

With the city reporting its highest daily spurt of Covid-19 cases at eight new cases on Saturday, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) health officers are wondering how to keep the people at home.

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Saturday was the first day of complete shutdown in Mumbai in the wake of coronavirus outbreak. All non-essential services were ordered to be shut in four districts — Mumbai, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Nagpur — which have recorded the highest number of cases. The decision was taken to decrease crowds on roads to prevent further possible transmission. However, despite the shutdown, hundreds of Mumbaiites flocked at grocery stores to stock up on foods, thus exposing themselves to possible infection.

Health officers said it is not the lack of isolation beds or ventilators which are the main hurdles in the fight to contain the outbreak, but people ignoring the state’s suggestion to socially distance themselves is.

“We have been trying so hard to sensitise people about the need to stay at home, but people are going to markets and stations to board trains to go back to their hometowns. People are the main hurdle we are facing to bring the outbreak under control,” said Dr Padmaja Keshkar, executive health officer, BMC.

With no option in hand, civic health officers have turned to the old process of making announcements on roads. All 24 municipal wards have been provided with two vehicles to sensitise people about the need to stay at home by making announcements in every lane of the city. “We have formed a team of health officers in each ward who are looking at the bandobast and are checking on the home-quarantined patients,” she added.

Hospitals start ‘fever and cold OPD’

All civic-run hospitals including Sir JJ Hospital have started fever and cold out-patient departments (OPDs) to save healthy people from getting exposed to Covid-19 during their visit to general OPDs.

“A patients infected with Sars-Cov-2 has symptoms similar to normal flu. So, there are possibilities of an infected person, who is unaware of his/her condition, infecting several others during their visit to OPD for check-ups. Hence, we have created this new OPD,” said Dr Hemant Deshmukh, dean of King Edward Memorable (KEM) Hospital.