BENGALURU: With directions coming from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has decided to increase the staff designated for contact tracing and updating data related to Covid-19. The BBMP is sending the proposal to Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar for approval, a senior BBMP official told The New Indian Express.

According to the BBMP, there are 1,26,830 people under home quarantine, of whom around 8,000 are interstate and international travellers, while 12,000 are primary and secondary contacts. The BBMP has over 2,700 ward and 30,000 booth-level officials for contact tracing and verification.

This apart, there are 25,600 volunteers, of whom 8,000 are active on any given day. “It looks sufficient, but there is a need to hire more staff as the Prime Minister wants contacts traced within two days. We want to do it much faster. Now, it takes about three days,” the BBMP official said.

Citizens, however, are not convinced and say that these numbers are only on paper. In many areas of the city, there is little or no response from the BBMP. “We are on home quarantine for the last 14 days and no one has come to check on us. No medicines have been prescribed and no follow-up done. We are forced to go out of the house to get essentials as there is no one to help.

The BBMP must admit its failure,” said S Menon, a resident of Jnana Bharathi ward. “Only some call centre people contact us and repeatedly ask for details of my family members. There is nothing beyond that. The government needs to scale up its contact tracing if the pandemic needs to be controlled,” said Moulami S, a resident of Hegganahalli.

Anbu Kumar, BBMP Special Commissioner, Covid Contact Tracing, said physical contact tracing is being done and around 35,000 people are being reached out every day. “There could be some discrepancies because of wrong information shared by positive patients. But those are being dealt with,” he added.