17,000 PPE kits distributed, testing of civic workers underway in all zones: BBMP

The BBMP informed the high court that it has distributed PPE kits to 17,419 sanitation workers and has given a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the families of four pourakarmikas who died due to Covid-19.

The submission came when a division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Alok Aradhe was hearing a batch of PILs filed on issues surrounding Covid-19 on Thursday.

The BBMP submitted that it started testing civic workers in all the zones from July 20 and that 15 workers have tested positive so far and are being treated at various hospitals.

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The bench asked the government to check whether the insurance scheme announced under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan was applicable to the sanitation workers.

88 testing centres

The government submitted that there are 88 ICMR-approved testing centres in the state, including 44 private ones.

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The additional government advocate stated that the Indian Council of Medical Research has been asked to send SMSes to those who tested negative.

The state also submitted that the data on the availability of beds was being updated on the website: https://apps.bbmpgov.in/covidbedstatus/.

"According to us, making available up-to-date data on the availability of beds on the public domain is one of the crucial parts of the fight against Covid-19. Therefore, it is appropriate to issue directions to the state that every hospital regularly submit data on the availability of beds at such intervals as decided by the state government," the bench said.