The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking has started taking voluntary self-declarations from its employees who may have travelled outside the city over the last two months to identify anyone who may have contracted COVID-19.
The BEST has 13 positive cases among its staff and their family members, which include five who tested positive from one building in Parel.
The building was sealed on Thursday after the mother of a deceased BEST employee died and later tested positive. Since then, her daughter-in-law, and two BEST employees and their spouses living in the adjoining flats have also tested positive. One of the staffers is a conductor working at the Colaba depot, while the other is with the engineering department at the Dadar workshop.
Of the 13, BEST said three had a travel history, with some having returned to the city during the lockdown. Until now, 250 workers have given a declaration of not having travelled.
Classification of cases
Senior BEST officials said they have also started classifying cases as occupational and non-occupational, with only two cases currently being in the former category: one conductor from Dharavi depot and another from Goregaon depot.
BEST’s chief medical officer Anil Singal said 17 staff members are in hospital, including the 13 positive cases. The others continue to be under observation and quarantine. “We have also started health check-ups and have screened 7,500 employees for symptoms. One of our positive cases in fact told us he never had symptoms of the novel coronavirus,” he said.
The BEST has also asked employees with co-morbidities to either stay home or work indoors. These include people with diabetes and heart disease, asthma and other lung infections, kidney patients on dialysis, cancer survivors, and people who smoke. Of the 13 patients, one has a smoking habit and his condition is being monitored.
A senior BEST official said a key issue they are battling is to dispel stigma related to the virus. “We are seeing extreme resistance when staff members are detected positive to not have associated staff members under home quarantine,” he said.
