The sole Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) employee who tested positive for coronavirus died at a private hospital in Tilak Nagar on Tuesday. As per reports, the 53-year-old was a foreman with the electricity supply wing and was suffering from diabetes and kidney-related ailments. BEST's chief medical officer Dr Anil Kumar Singhal said that he was on a ventilator. Following his diagnosis, his family was tested for the virus as well but their reports were negative.
Dr Singhal had issued a circular directing the staffers to not show up for duty if they were suffering from diabetes, heart problems, kidney dialysis, asthma, and cancer. He also asked women employees who are pregnant to not report for duty in the power and transport divisions amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The BEST buses have been ferrying passengers amid the lockdown in Mumbai. However, being at duty puts the employees and their families at risk. After which, they asked the BEST Corporation to take measures to protect them since unlike the doctors, they don't possess Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to safeguard themselves from the virus.
Following which, the BEST Corporation had provided its bus drivers with full protective gear. The move by the transport wing was aimed at benefitting the drivers who have to transport citizens to quarantine centres or containment zones.
However, a section of drivers and union leaders also demanded medical insurance as well for the drivers. BEST Employees' Union president Nitin Patil told that the Pune civic body had recently announced insurance for workers other than medical staff, which included their bus drivers.
We demand that the BMC also announce a Rs 1 crore medical insurance for all bus drivers, conductors, inspectors and other staffers who are on the frontline in Mumbai," said Patil.
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