To ensure there are no loopholes while handling the third wave in Mumbai, the BMC has now asked the IIT-Bombay to scrutinise all their Covid-related policies made to tackle the ongoing pandemic.
The civic body had several Covid-related policies which include My Family My Responsibility, Break The Chain, Mission Save lives and others.
Civic officials said they are conducting research to understand the spread of virus in the city and reasons behind the cases being reduced. But this time they want to find out whether the Covid-19-related policies made by them were accurate or if there needs to be some changes , which will help them in future to tackle any pandemic.
Suresh Kakani, Additional Municipal Commissioner, said since the pandemic started they have been making policies to curb the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus across the city following which they are now able to get hold of the virus resulting in cases having been dropped. But there were few instances where the policies failed as they were not able to anticipate the virus will be more transmissible in the second wave and more people will contract the virus and die due to it.
“Amid ongoing pandemic we had made several policies like 3Ts (Treating, Testing and Tracking), Mission SAVE Lives, My Family My Responsibility and Break The Chain which helped us to curb mortality and infection rate. Now, we want the policies to be reviewed or scrutinised so that we will get to know the loopholes due to which we couldn't anticipate more numbers getting infected in the second wave which started in February,” he said.
Kakani further said they have tied up with Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-Bombay) asking them to review all the policies and chalk out them with technicalities so that these policies can be used in future. “With the help of the researchers we are doing all this study and reviewing covid related policies is one of them. We have also asked them to use their mathematical methods to help BMC in formulating better plans,” Kakani added.
Senior health official from the civic health department said there are many studies and research in the pipeline which are being done in collaboration with the educational institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGO) and doctors to understand the virus and it’s spread in the citizens of Mumbai.
“So far our policies has been successful and we have received applauds for the Dharavi and Mumbai Model, but we need more detailing on our policies which can be used anytime in future for which we need to find out if we can add or subtract new things to handle the pandemic,” said health official.
