Mumbai civic body to visit again houses found locked in anti-Covid drive

A list of the homes that were found locked has been prepared and they will be revisited, screened and tested for Covid if needed.

Fearing another wave of Covid-19 due to reverse migration, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will revisit nearly 15,000 homes that were found locked during its door-to-door survey under ‘My Family My Responsibility’ initiative.

A health worker takes a nasal swab sample of a woman to test for Covid-19 as others wait their turn in Mumbai on November 19. (AP)

These households would have nearly 70,000 people who will be surveyed again. In the two phases implemented under the initiative in last two months, BMC has so far surveyed 3.5 million households and covered over 14 million population.

A list of the homes that were found locked has been prepared and they will be revisited, screened and tested for Covid if needed. Civic officials said that this will ensure proper screening of the population that has migrated back to the city.

“Nearly 12, 000 of these households are in slum pockets and many of them could belong to the migrated population,” says Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner (health). BMC will also set up medical camps at these locations if needed. “The revisits will follow up with screenings of people for Covid. In case if there is a significant number of people that need to be screened, medical camps will be set up at identified areas,” he added.