Only 50 front line workers of Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking are currently infected with Covid-19 and are undergoing treatment at various city hospitals.
The number of active cases of BEST front line workers has fallen drastically in the past few weeks. During the month of June when Covid-19 was at its peak, there were nearly 300 active cases per day. Following the September spike the number of active cases per day fluctuated between 150 and 170 cases every day.
As per the latest data, total 2,740 cases have been reported positive by the BEST Undertaking since April 2020, of which 2,600 employees have recovered, 50 patients succumbed to the infection and 40 patients are presently under home quarantine.
BEST chief medical officer, Dr. Anil Kumar Singhal stated that recovery rate of BEST employees is 95 per cent .
"Both the recovery and mortality rate of BEST workers is better than all the agencies engaged with frontline services. There only 50 active patients right now, most of them are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms," Singhal told FPJ.
The medical officer also mentioned that the workers need to be extra cautious presently considering winter and festive season is on the cards.
"We have urged the workers to abide by the Covid protocols. We have also provided them with vitamin tablets for immunity boosting and are monitoring the health condition of each employee via telemonitoring systems," Singhal added.
Meanwhile, nearly 155 staffers of the MSRTC have been infected of COVID-19 since they began operating buses in Mumbai with par with BEST.
BEST has leased nearly 1,000 buses from the state transport department. MRSTC staffers work at Mumbai for one week, following which they go back to their hometown where they had to compulsorily undergo COVID tests.
Total 2,090 employees of MSRTC have been infected of COVID of which 411 employees were on duty in Mumbai and Thane, the figures were confirmed by MSRTC spokesperson Abhijeet Bhosale.
BJP MLA Gopichand Padalkar on Monday slammed the BMC and state government for not taking adequate protective measures.
"The MSRTC workers are tirelessly working to provide service in the state but not much is being done for their safety by the state government and BMC," stated Padalkar.
"The employees were on frontline duty and are being treated under the expense of BMC and BEST. We are doing tests at every depot across the state to detect the spread of the virus following which precautionary measures are being taken," stated a MSRTC official.
