GHMC falls short of staff, tells residents to disinfect

With the alarming increase in Covid-19 cases in the city, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is falling short of staff to take up containment measures at affected house clusters, as prescribed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

That the increase in cases comes when the staff is deployed for monsoonrelated duties is only making things more difficult.

Hard-pressed civic officials have now advised residents to use Lizol, a commercially available disinfectant, to clean their houses.

Residents are to mix a spoonful of Lizol in a litre of water and use it to wipe the most-touched surfaces with a cloth.

The GHMC said it is getting Covid-19 data only after four days from the health department. When the cases are notified, the GHMC will supply a bucketful of sodium hypochlorite. Corporation officials said that until mid-May, the GHMC entomology staff was deployed on Covid-19 duty and manned 180 containment zones. Since then, the number of cases has been increasing rapidly, and the affected house clusters have increased from 165 to 1,165 till Wednesday.

Though 302 cases were reported on Thursday, the health department is yet to share the details with the civic body to either take up or notify residents about self-containment activities.

“With the number of cases we were not able to deploy teams to the house clusters, since the entomology staff were busy in monsoon-related work to stop the spread of seasonal diseases. The staff has been performing fogging and anti-larval operations aggressively,” a top GHMC official told Deccan Chronicle.

About 4,000 Coronavirus tests were being done in the city and 15 per cent to 18 per cent have been testing positive since three days. “It’s impossible for the entomology staff to attend 250 houses to 300 houses per day for containment. Apart from the house clusters, the teams have to spray disinfectant in the entire apartment or lane, which means the staff have to cover at least 2,000 households per day for mere containment, apart from the monsoon related work,” he said.

Adding to the woes, the disinfectant sprayed in the vicinity of affected house clusters was getting washed off in the rain. He said people should take care of themselves and not entirely depend on the corporation.