Mumbai lockdown: Door-to-door screening failing in Malad hotspot

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations BMC ambitious doortodoor screening drive in slum pockets to find symptomatic COVID19 patients seems to have fallen flat on its face in densely populated Malwani Malad West While local residents are not cooperating with the civic teams some of them claimed the latter are not implementing the drive strictlyThis reporter who accompanied them for few days found volunteers appointed by the civic body were merely asking the slum dwellers if they wanted to get screened for symptoms associated with COVID19 and if they got no in response they would go onto the next dwellingBut both sides can be blamed for on learning about the civic teams visit in the area a few slum dwellers were also seen locking their houses on the pretext of going to the market to escape getting screened for COVID19 In most of the slum pockets in Malwani the residents have been putting off screening to avoid getting admitted to COVID hospitals in case they are found symptomatic In Ambojwadi the civic team walked off after locals refused to cooperateThe civic teams are armed with temperature guns oxymeters and a register to jot down the details of residents but hardly a few pages are filled in their daylong arduous foot work in the slum areas of MalwaniThe civic teams conducted doortodoor screenings in several slum pockets such as Ambojwadi where people did not cooperate PicSatej ShindeFear of quarantine centresThis reporter spoke to many local residents and learnt that people are scared to get quarantined in civic facilities where they feel hygiene is a big issue A few of them have told midday that through various media ndash social media newspapers and TV channels they have learnt that the washrooms hospital beds floors etc are in filthy conditions and fear they will fall sick if they get admitted to these hospitals quarantine facilities or isolation wards In some cases the locals were found picking up fights with the health teams which ended with the local police interveningSeema Singh a resident said We have heard the quarantine centres are filthy and fear we will fall sick if we get admitted there Also the doortodoor screenings should have been done at the beginning of the pandemic It is too late now The civic teams are only filling up their diaries for the sake of announcing that doortodoor screening at Malwani has been doneA doctor said some residents of the slums have produced forged reports saying they tested negative but in BMC records they had tested positive She said they are adamant about not cooperating with the BMCPeople not cooperatingThe civic body has also started testing fever camps at various locations which local residents are encouraged to visit to get screened But this too seems to have failed because people are not turning up in large numbersThe doctors are finding it difficult to convince the slum dwellers to cooperate with them though the initiative has been taken to safeguard everyone in this global health crisis People are not cooperating in some areas We have asked them to visit the testing fever camps with their Aadhaar cards but few of them turn up without any documents and few others gave wrong details like address mobile numbers etc said Dr Sufiya Shaikh incharge of BMCs health post number 2 at MalwaniNine people to be tracedIf someone is found symptomatic we take their samples for the COVID test and if the report is positive we inform our teams to isolate the patient immediately But if the address and other details are deliberately given incorrect by the person it becomes a herculean task for us to track himher down immediately Till now there are nine such patients who have given incorrect credentials to us and they have tested positive for COVID19 We are struggling to trace them added Dr Shaikh A local social worker Tophail Khan has been helping civic teams track down the missing nine peopleThe civic teams have conducted doortodoor screenings in several slum pockets of Malwani including Azmi Nagar Rathodi MHB colony Mhada old and new collector compound and at present efforts are underway at Ambojwadi and KharodiDr Shaikh said Apart from conducting doortodoor screenings we are also spreading awareness among people Many of them refuse to cooperate with us Some of them have produced forged reports of COVID19 saying they tested negative but in our records they had tested positive Our teams tried to convince them to cooperate with us for isolating them but they were adamant not to help us In such cases we have to take the help of Malwani police as the crowd swells to stand against our team membersThe BMC Surveillance Health Inspector Sandesh Purandare told midday that local residents have been misguided They are unaware of what will happen to them if they go to a COVID hospital We were doing doortodoor screening near Moinia Masjid But the local residents protested and when the situation deteriorated we had to call the policeSome glad about moveHowever some locals such as Sarita Jaiswal welcomed the doortodoor screenings and testing fever camps in Malwani The BMC has done something good for us in this global health crisis We must cooperate with the civic teams who have risked their lives to safeguard us she saidHer neighbour Noorjahan Shaikh said I am suffering from hypertension and my husband is diabetic We have been indoors since the lockdown and were scared to go to the hospital to get our medicines I was really scared that if I test positive I would be sent to an isolation ward But my screening was done and I was not symptomatic nor is my husband We must cooperate with the civic teams Shaikh further added that many pregnant women have returned to their hometowns in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar because it is mandatory to get COVID test done at the time of deliveryAnother local resident Sameer Khan said It is really sad that most people believe in rumours It is also the responsibility of government bodies to spread awareness in slum pocketsCatch up on all 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