Pulse polio team to carry out rapid virus testing in Mumbai

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, April 8

With the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 touching 800 in Mumbai, the local administration has decided to tap its resources engaged in polio eradication to tackle the new virus, according to sources.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has decided to train nearly 3,000 women healthcare personnel who are part of the polio eradication drive to carry out rapid testing of people for the Covid-19 virus, according to sources here. Officials say the personnel will be trained in around two weeks and deployed on the field.

The civic body was in the process of acquiring adequate rapid testing kits to screen people in nearly 300 containment zones across the city where people have tested positive for the virus.

Civic officials deny that community transmission has begun in Mumbai, though a large number of people in the city have no history of foreign travel.

Masks mandatory

• The Brihanmumbai MC has made it mandatory for the residents of Mumbai to wear masks while stepping outdoors
• The order states that anyone moving outdoors either in his personal or official capacity for whatever reason in official or personal vehicles too would be required to wear masks

10 cases in Dharavi

• Three more persons tested positive for coronavirus in Dharavi on Wednesday, taking the number of such cases to 10
• The three patients are 25-year-old man from Mukund Nagar locality, a 35-year-old man from Dhanwada chawl and a 60-year-old woman from Muslim Nagar. pti