BEST sees record discharge of Covid positive staffers in 24 hours

MUMBAI: As many as 41 Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) staffers who had tested positive for Covid-19 were discharged within 24 hours on Monday -- the highest number for a single day in the past five months. The recovery rate of BEST has also shot up to 83%, while 1,400 staffers have so far been discharged and are back home, announced BEST chief medical officer Anil Kumar Singhal on Tuesday.
The number of Covid positive cases among BEST staffers has touched 1,680 cases. While 27 employees have been officially declared as 'confirmed Covid deaths', the unions and non-profit citizens group Aamchi Mumbai, Aamchi BEST have contested this claim. Hussain Indorewala from AMAB said, "We have information that 107 employees have died and the BEST should tell us why all of them are not being considered as Covid deaths."
The AMAB will host a webinar on Wednesday evening to discuss the importance of BEST for Mumbai, the impacts of the pandemic on BEST workers and the way forward for BEST. Experts and union leaders are part of the panel of speakers at this webinar.
After being discharged on Monday, the 41 staffers will now have to undergo a 14 day quarantine at home to check their health and if fit, they can resume duties. "Many of those discharged in the past are back at work,'' said an official.
The speedy recovery was due to the BEST Covid response teams arranging for beds, ICU facilities in private hospitals and also arranging for the life-saving Remdesivir injections for staffers during emergency situations, Singhal added.