The next of kin of 90 employees who died due to COVID-19 have been given compensation of about Rs 50 lakh each in the form of ex-gratia as per norms and about 75 have been given jobs in the Undertaking.
A BEST bus driver and conductor cover their faces during lockdown in 2020. Pic/Atul Kamble
Though there has been a spike in COVID-19 cases across the country, the BEST Undertaking has managed to keep the test positivity rate low among employees, with about 387 of the 9,000 tested since January 2021 found infected. Of the nearly 33,770 employees, about 24,000 have been vaccinated, with 9,000 among them getting both the doses.
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The next of kin of 90 employees who died due to COVID-19 have been given compensation of about Rs 50 lakh each in the form of ex-gratia as per norms and about 75 have been given jobs in the Undertaking.
“The first case in the Undertaking was reported in April 2020 and since then about 3,200 cases have been reported of which 3,004 were cured. As of now there are about 110 active cases, but most are asymptomatic. The 387 cases amount to about 4.3 per cent of the positivity rate. As per specifications and the guidelines of the World Health Organisation, a rate of less than five per cent positive cases in any organisation is held as an ideal control parameter, and the BEST has achieved this,” BEST’s Chief Medical Officer Anil Kumar Singal said.
Unstoppable
Singal said that vaccination has also been taken up as a priority measure for its employees. BEST employees have lined up for vaccination since they are frontline workers in Mumbai. The BEST has been the only public transport undertaking in Mumbai that has been working without a break since the lockdown began in March 2020. BEST officials said since the day the lockdown came into effect from March 23, 2020, BEST has not stopped its services even for a single day, even as local trains, often referred to as the lifeline of Mumbai, came to a halt.
Buses turn into ambulances
The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has converted 45 NMMT buses into ambulances to ferry COVID patients from health centres to COVID Care Centres. A senior health official said that as the number of patients in Navi Mumbai have been rising steadily, the buses have been brought into use for hospitals and given to the centres so there is no delay in ferrying patients to and from the centres to hospitals.
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