Mumbai: 7 IAS officers to work on reducing doubling rate of cases to 20 days

The circular stated that these IAS officers will be on field daily at their respective zones from morning to till 2 pm. After finishing field work and reviewing the situation, they will brief the municipal commissioner daily by 6 pm via video conferencing.

As per the circular, A L Jarhad was given the charge of zone 1 (Colaba, Byculla, CST, Malabar Hill), Manisha Mhaiskar was given the responsibility of zone 2 (Worli, Dharavi, Parel, Sion), N Ramaswami for zone 3 (Bandra, Santacruz), Suresh Kakani for zone 4 (Andheri, Goregaon), Jayshree Bhoj for zone 5 (Chembur, Kurla), Ashwini Bhide for zone 6 (Ghartkopar, Bhandup, Mulund) and P Velarasu for zone 7 (Kandivali, Borivali, Dahisar).

However, officials said that with the Friday transfers of Jarhad and Bhoj, their predecessors are likely to take up the responsibility.

A senior BMC official said that for the officers to achieve their target, they will have to work on 10-point agenda, including mapping of positive cases, contact tracing, containmemt zones forming, house to house survey, identifying comorbid patients, testing symptomatic people as well as organising fever clinics.

“The idea is to monitor the situation very closely and take preventive measures. These officers will decide strategy in their zones to achieve this, “said a senior official.

On Friday, Mumbai’s COVID-19 count stood at 12,142 – the cases have doubled in 10 days from 6,169 on April 28.

Areas like Dharavi, Worli and Wadala are the worst hit with significant rise in cases in slums.

Mumbai’s doubling rate as on May 1 stood at 9 days. In mid-April, it was between 4 to 6 days. BMC has so far declared 1,900 areas as containment zones in the city.