In a bid to prevent community spread of the deadly COVID-19, BMC's H West ward has started screening hawkers, fruit and vegetable vendors and even shopkeepers for its symptoms across all areas in its jurisdiction. In two days -- July 21 and July 22-- the civic body completed screening 701 people falling under these categories.
The H (West) ward consists of Bandra west, Khar west and Santacruz west.
On July 21, the civic body set up health and screening camps at Pali Naka and Bandra west station between 10 am t0 2 pm, where 347 people were screened. Following this, on July 22, during the same time, the civic body tested 354 hawkers, fruit and vegetable vendors and shopkeepers at Khar west station.
"The campaign started on July 21 and will go on till July 24. The initiative is part of our aggressive screening campaign. Following Mission Begin Again, markets have opened up, so have shops in all areas. Hence, screening will provide us a heads up in terms of those showing symptoms. We also inquire with those coming up for screening if they have come in contact with any COVID-19 positive patients recently. Our teams are stationed at designated places for the screening campaign," said Vinayak Vispute, assistant municipal commissioner of H (west) ward.
Vispute added, "Screening will help us in the early detection of cases, and early detection will lead to early treatment to the patients, thus saving lives."
On July 23, the civic body set up the screening camp between 10 am to 2 pm opposite Tequila Restaurant on Santacruz west station road. Meanwhile on July 24, the screening camp will be set up at the same time opposite Bandra Supari store, Bazar road in Bandra west.
The H west ward of BMC has managed to keep coronavirus at bay for a long time now. Despite having a high number of cases during April and May, the numbers started dropping down gradually in June. The ward strategised and adopted ways to aggressively contain the outbreak across all the areas in its jurisdiction. It even involved Area Locality Managements (ALMs) in its battle against the virus.
The seven days average doubling rate of coronavirus cases in H west ward as on July 21 stands at 51 days. The total number of cases in H west ward is 2681 with 161 deaths, as it figures on the list of five wards with the lowest number of cases. The ward, currently, has 795 active cases. A total of 1,725 people have successfully recovered and are discharged.
