BMC reduces Covid staff as active cases go down in Bhubaneswar
BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has trimmed its gigantic team engaged in Covid management since March in view of falling daily Covid count.
The 25 officers deputed from different departments to the BMC and the 50 assistant section officers (ASOs) deputed from secretariat for Covid management have been asked to join their parent departments. The strength of rapid response team (RRT) was also reduced significantly to 10 members only. The number of RRT members had gone up to 90 in September. It was trimmed in a phased manner, said a BMC official.
The BMC has also downsized the strength of the call centre with only three personnel manning it now. The BMC control room staff have also joined their regular work, except a few to track daily Covid cases and disposal of body of patients.
A BMC source said although daily sample tests have reduced to half (around 1,500) in the city, the community health centres and primary health centres are still operational to facilitate people to come voluntarily for the test.
BMC commissioner, Prem Chandra Chaudhury, said there is no point now keeping the deputed staff engaged in Covid duty. “Our enforcement activities are going on. The regular enforcement squads are on the job both for Covid and plastic norms enforcement. We don’t think we need to recall them any more from their parent department,” he said.
In August, the BMC had roped in as many as 50 ASOs from different departments of secretariat and 15 data entry operators.
The BMC had earlier roped in 50 personnel, including doctors and other healthcare workers, officers and clerical staff for Covid management in the city. ASOs from 26 departments had been deputed to the BMC for the job of registering the returnees at airports, carrying out active surveillance in non-slum pockets, shifting of patients from home and quarantine centres to Covid hospitals, shifting of suspected cases from slums to institutional quarantine, shifting of asymptomatic positive cases to Covid care homes, sample collection, contact tracing, database management and coordinating between BMC and other departments, said an official.
At the call centre, 24 persons were working in two shifts to stay in touch with people in home isolation and in Covid care homes.