In the wake of rising Covid 19 cases in Mumbai, BMC has restricted entry of visitors to its head office at Fort, 24 administrative offices and other civic offices across the city.
Last year, at the beginning of the pandemic, BMC had stopped visitors’ entry to its offices from March 17 and begun temperature checks of all employees and visitors.
According to a circular issued on Monday, with the exception of elected representatives, citizens who have urgent work and others who have meetings scheduled in civic offices, no other visitors will be allowed to enter civic offices across the city. BMC has also directed department heads to conduct meetings through video conferencing.
Department heads or ward officers can issue an entry pass to visitors for exceptional cases, given they can produce negative RT-PCR reports not older than 48 hours.
The civic body has asked civic workers and officials to take Covid-19 vaccination at the earliest.
Fire Brigade’s chief fire officer tests positive
Mumbai Fire Brigade’s chief fire officer K V Hivrale has tested positive for COVID-19. According to officials from the Fire Brigade, he has been admitted to Nanavati Hospital for observation. His condition is stable, but since he has comorbidities and is close to 58 years, he has been admitted, said an official from the BMC.
Hivrale was part of the firefighters’ team that undertook rescue and firefighting operations at Sunrise Hospital after fire broke out in Dreams Mall in Bhandup west on March 26. Firefighters had evacuated 70 patients, most of them COVID-19 positive.
“He tested positive last week and was admitted in Nanavati Hospital. We don’t know if he contracted the virus from the hospital while carrying out the rescue operation. No other staff of the Bhandup fire showed any symptoms,” said an official from the Fire Brigade.
