A month on, 57 wards still don't have fever clinics

The fever clinics that the BBMP chief had last month promised to open in all the 198 wards have come up in only 141 wards so far.

On July 9, the then BBMP commissioner B H Anil Kumar announced that fever clinics would be opened in primary health centres (PHCs) and referral clinics in all the 198 wards. A month on, as many as 57 wards still don’t have them and residents have to travel to other wards to take Covid tests.

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The BBMP had said that these clinics would be used to collect swab samples and refer patients having fever, cold, cough, throat itching and breathlessness to hospitals.

As of August 9, fever clinics and mobile units have screened 46,529 patients and collected the RT-PCR swabs of 32,336 patients. By this process, 9,470 people have tested positive so far, BBMP data shows.

Residents of the 57 wards that don’t have fever clinics say they have been put to hardship. For instance, people living in Yelahanka New Town and Yelahanka Old Town have to travel more than 10 km to get themselves tested. There’s no government Covid testing facility nearby.

When DH contacted the Apthamitra helpline to check the status of fever clinics, it emerged that there’s not a single such facility or mobile testing unit in entire Yelahanka. The Apthamitra staff directed the DH reporter to far-off places such as Chikkajala, Devanahalli, Chikkaballapur, Rajanakunte and Singanayakanahalli to get the tests done.

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Dr G K Suresh, City Programme Management Officer, National Urban Health Mission, BBMP, said that in the 57 wards that didn’t have fever clinics, healthcare workers were visiting households to do the Covid tests. Alternatively, residents are being asked to visit the nearest fever clinic. He claimed that mobile units had been sent to all the wards.