Mumbai: In a massive drive against the coronavirus outbreak, BMC teams will keep in touch with residents who have gone into isolation in their homes to ensure they complete their quarantine period of 14 days. The civic body has formed multiple health posts in all the 24 wards comprising of 1,067 teams to visit housing societies.
After conducting checks at housing societies, the corporation will now maintain a regular follow up with travellers even if they tested negative and are in self-quarantined. The BMC has procured a list of residents who recently returned from a foreign country. It has created health posts for a door-to-door campaign, and dispensaries where people can report about themselves or other suspected cases in each wards. Details of these health posts and dispensaries have been distributed in all housing societies.
The teams raise awareness in housing societies and enquire about the travel history of the residents. The BMC through these teams has managed to survey 10,027 housing societies and neighbourhoods they had visited and so far, no person has been found to be symptomatic. However, total 524 people who recently returned from a foreign trip have been under self-isolation despite being testing negative.
“Despite being testing negative, we have advised people with recent travel history to remain in self-quarantine for 14 days. We are keeping in touch them to ensure they complete their quarantine period,” said Prajakta Amberkar, medical officer, A ward.
The BMC has procured the list of foreign returnees from the Kasturba Hospital. Recently, the civic body had also approached the central government to get details of the passengers, who had come via Delhi. BMC constituted teams for either visiting their homes or contacting them over the phone or through social networking sites.
The civic body formed health posts depending on the number of societies in a ward, as per the number of ward constituencies. The teams visit the housing societies, report to health posts. Besides, there are dispensaries for people to report about themselves or others.
Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said, “Our initial aim was to track the passengers who returned from foreign trips and monitor their current health status to avoid a possibility of the spread of disease. Fortunately, no one has tested positive so far and hence there is no need to worry. However, as a precaution, we will track them and do a follow up over the next 14 days.”
