The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has now decided to conduct RT-PCR of the occupants living in sealed buildings across the city. Civic officials said they will conduct RT-PCR tests on positive cases, their contacts and those with comorbidities. The move is aimed at breaking the chain of virus spreading in housing societies before the third wave starts in the city.
As per the dashboard, Mumbai currently has 50 sealed buildings and 1,564 sealed floors with 3,718 active cases, out of which 42 per cent are asymptomatic and 47 per cent are symptomatic. Of these, 11 per cent are critical.
Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said there will be no change in treatment, testing, and tracing protocol. However, the BMC has directed all ward officers to conduct RT-PCR tests on all occupants living in a building which are sealed by the civic body.
Moreover, the move is to ensure controlling cases from highrise societies that are failing to adhere to Covid-19 norms.
“We want everyone to mandatorily undergo RT-PCR tests, considering most of the cases are coming from high-rise buildings or societies. For now, cases from slums are few,” Kakani said.
Executive health officer Dr Mangala Gomare said the BMC needs to ramp up testing amid festival season for which all these measures are being taken. “Though we have the test positivity rate below one per cent, we need to be extra careful,” she said.
The BMC has introduced 266 centres where people can voluntarily go and get the test done. It is also going to have rapid antigen test (RAT) desks at crowded public places like fish markets, vegetable markets and malls where people will be randomly screened.
