BMC to increase contact tracing in city from 1:10 ratio to 1:15

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has informed the Bombay High Court that it has increased the COVID-19 contact tracing in the city to 1:10 ratio and plans to increase the same to 1:15 ratio in the coming days.

In an affidavit filed in the court on Tuesday, the civic body said for every COVID-19 patient, it had identified at least 10 high and low-risk contacts and placed them in institutional or home quarantine.

On June 12 alone, it had screened more than 19,000 people who may have come in contact with infected persons, while over 78 lakh such people had been screened so far, the BMC stated in its affidavit.

"To contain or stop the spread of COVID-19, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has been carrying out aggressive contact tracing. The current contact tracing ratio is 1:10 and the proposal is to increase this to 1:15 in densely populated areas," the affidavit filed by BMC''s E ward assistant commissioner reads.

These submissions were made before a bench of Justice S J Kathawalla, who was hearing a petition filed by Neelkamal Realty, a DB Realty group company, challenging the requisition of its redevelopment building in Byculla by the civic body to use it as a quarantine facility.