A housemaid residing in the slums of Mumbai’s central suburbs who tested positive for Covid-19 has raised concerns among many quarters. Many believe that it will be an extremely difficult exercise for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to trace all those the woman had come in contact with.
Reports suggest that the 65-year-old patient had been working at the house of a person who had returned from the US and tested positive for the novel coronavirus ten days after their return. Consequently, the house help was tested and confirmed to be positive for Covid-19 raising alarm bells as she is a slum-dweller.
The priority for civic authorities is to trace all her contacts.
BMC medical officer Bhupinder Patil expressed confidence that things were under control and there was no need to get anxious about the development.
Explaining the standard operating procedure followed for such cases, Patil told India Today TV, In such cases, a procedure is followed and was done here as well. First of all, from Day 1 itself, the details are taken on who all the person has met. The contact history is taken thoroughly and a set of leading questions are asked like where all did the person go and who all did the person meet etc. Other than that, a survey of 500 nearby houses is done and the survey continues for the next 14 days which tracks if anybody has any symptoms or not. This exercise is conducted thoroughly and generally, 16-20 people are involved in this exercise.
Mumbai Police PRO DCP Pranay Ashoke added, Mumbai Police will provide all assistance as required in the exercise.
The count of Covid-19 positive cases in Maharashtra is slowly inching towards the three-figure mark. The current count till the evening of March 23 stood at 97.
There are now 38 positive patients in Mumbai, followed by 16 in Pune, 12 in Pimpri Chinchwad and five in Navi Mumbai. Kalyan, Nagpur, Sangli and Yavatmal have reported four cases each while Ahmednagar and Thane have two patients each.
Satara, Panvel, Ulhasnagar, Aurangabad, Ratnagiri and Vasai Virar have reported one positive patient each, taking the total number to 89, the report said.
The state has seen three Covid-19 deaths so far.
A total of 255 people are currently under quarantine in the state and these include both confirmed and suspected coronavirus cases.
Quarantine facilities have admitted 2,144 people so far of which 1,889 have tested negative.
Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/house-maid-tests-positive-for-covid-19-in-mumbai-bmc-says-nothing-to-worry-1658900-2020-03-24