The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has ramped up contact tracing, especially in slums, and municipal wards with the most number of home-quarantined cases are showing fewer patients, besides a relatively small doubling rate.
The BMC has traced 10.69 lakh contacts of 56,740 COVID-19-positive cases. Of these, 7.97 lakh are low-risk contacts while 2.71 lakh are high-risk contacts.
The corporation started contact tracing after the first few cases were reported in Mumbai in March. Despite that, cases spiralled in April and May. Municipal commissioner I.S. Chahal had ordered officers to push the contact tracing ratio from 1:3 to 1:10. Many wards managed to ramp up their contact tracing and certain wards like F South (Parel), M West (Chembur) have placed the maximum number of high-risk contacts under home quarantine. They have a ratio of 1:8 or more in the high-risk category.
F South has 3,070 cases so far, of which 1,610 are active. M West has 2,115 cases so far, of which 1,128 are active. F South has a case doubling rate of 26 days while M West has a rate of 21 days.
In comparison, R North ward (Dahisar) has the poorest doubling rate of 11 days., with cases growing at 6.4%, the fastest so far.
E ward (Byculla) and K West (Andheri West) have also fared poorly. So far, 7.69 lakh people have completed quarantine in Mumbai, 1.07 lakh of whom were in institutional quarantine. There are now 24,315 people in institutional quarantine.
The contact tracing ratio is 1:16 for slums as on date, Manish Walunj, assistant municipal commissioner of L Ward, said. “Every day, our staff makes calls to those in home quarantine and checks on them. Those in institutional quarantine are under careful observation and are either moved to type 2 Covid Care Centres or discharged. It is a continuous process.”
Ashwini Bhide, additional municipal commissioner who is also in charge of contact tracing, said it cannot be said with certainty that wards with the highest contact tracing record are showing fewer cases as the demographic of each ward is different.
“But in the slums, we are trying to maintain a ratio of 1:15. Sometimes, people here resist being moved to a facility but our staff has to convince them that it is for the best. It has been seen that 25% to 30% cases in Mumbai are detected from among close contacts. When these people are moved to our facility, we prevent further infection,” Ms. Bhide said.
Generally, high-risk contacts for every patient is much higher in the slums due to congested living conditions.
“In societies, managements are taking the initiative to ensure contacts stay home-quarantined. In slums, we have to shift people as a person may step out at some point,” said Ms. Bhide.
A few weeks ago, the number of people at any given point in institutional quarantine were not more than 10,000, she said. “After we ramped up contact tracing, it has increased to around 20,000 every day. As people are discharged, more people come in.”
