Prompted by a high incidence of Covid-19 infection, the BrihanMumbai municipal corporation (BMC) launched an awareness-outreach campaign, ‘My Family My Responsibility’, on September 15, which has succeeded in pushing up the recovery rate – to as high as 89% as on the evening of November 2.

The overall growth rate of Covid cases in Mumbai between October 26 and November 1 stood at 0.38%.  The Rate of infection (Ro) has fallen from 1.06% to 0.41% and doubling rate has climbed from 66 days to 182 days.
 
The staggering and encouraging figures are a result of ‘My Family My Responsibility’campaign which was started by MCGM, municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said.

BMC health survey teams twice visited 34.9 lakh families out of a total of 35.2 lakh families during this period. They visited families in Mumbai to physically check their health status, create awareness on wearing masks, use of sanitizer and to maintain physical distancing.
 
As a result of the BMC’s determined and successful house-to-house campaign, the number of buildings that had to be sealed has reduced by 30%, from 10,372 on October 1 to 7,265 on November 1. The number of containment zones has reduced by 13%, from 672 to 584, during the same period.

Ro has come down from 1.06% to 0.41% and doubling rate for the municipal corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has climbed from 66 days to 171 days. The death rate for the month of October has been 2.5%. Cumulatively the death rate has come down from 4.4% to 3.9%. The overall growth rate of Covid cases in Mumbai between October 26 and November 1 stood at 0.38%.
 
In terms of vacant Covid beds at dedicated Covid hospitals (DCH) and dedicated Covid health centre (DCHC), the availability has increased from 4,986 beds since October1 to 8,151 beds as on November 1 till 4 pm. The number of vacant ICU beds availability also has increased from 225 beds to 561 beds during the said period. As many as 244 free testing centres across the city of Mumbai are now made operational by BMC since November 2.
 
Further, the average daily testing (mostly RT-PCR) has increased from 6,500 in August to around 14,000-16,000. The total number of discharged patients has climbed up from 1,69,258  as on September 30, 2020 to 2,27,822 as on October 31. The number of critical patients in hospitals too has dropped by 24%. As per BMC, on November 1 there were 897 positive cases and the number of positive cases dropped to 693 the next day.
 
For the campaign, BMC put up 738 mega commercial hoardings with campaign slogans provided free of cost by advertisement companies across the Mumbai city. Additionally, 3,100 BEST buses and1,750 bus shelters were used for awareness generation with ‘No Mask, No Entry’ slogans and stickers. Forty lakh awareness pamphlets were distributed around homes and shops. The BMC is also using electronic/print media and radio FM channel platforms for pushing awareness on the corona hygiene campaign.
 
To ensure strict enforcement at public places more than 1.5 lakh citizens were fined for not wearing masks and spitting. BMC has a target of imposing such fines on another 5 lakh citizens in November for those found without masks or spitting in public spaces.
 
Chahal has asked citizens not to lower their guard or become complacent in relentless fight against Covid-19 and said that citizens must celebrate the festival of Deepawali with utmost care and caution.