MUMBAI: The 14-day home quarantine has finally ended for the Mumbaikars who had travelled abroad with the Andheri couple who were the first from the city to test positive for the novel coronavirus . Their group which returned from a tour of Dubai on March 1 make up the biggest cluster of Covid-19 positive cases in Maharashtra The home quarantine imposed on the non-infected members of the Dubai group has been a mixed experience. At least one senior citizen couple from Vile Parle admitted they had breached the rules to step out for shopping. It turns out the BMC’s health department phoned them each day to track their health but did not monitor their actual quarantine. The husband, a retired customs officer, said, “Of course, we went out to buy things. There is just the two of us at home. Who would run errands? Moreover, don’t I know my responsibilities? BMC did not post anyone at our door. They would have to hire staff and pay wages to do so. Is that easily done?” He and his wife have finally tested negative.With over 700 Mumbaikars now confined to their homes as a preventive step against the spread of Covid-19, the success of the arrangement is vital to the fight against the spread of the virus. However, those who were quarantined speak of lack of support, harassment by neighbours, and the haphazardness of the process, while authorities say the BMC simply does not have the resources to ensure effective quarantining of citizens.For citizens, problems range from everyday concerns like supply of household provisions to battling ostracism, to tackling fake news and being summoned for tests during the confinement. For the authorities, challenges vary from logistics of enforcement to tackling breach of protocol by quarantined individuals, some of whom invite relatives over out of boredom. The situation is not very different from even the advanced countries, as documented by the medical journal Lancet which recently did a study on quarantining and its impact.At Bangur Nagar , Goregaon, where a woman, Archana Bhargav (name changed) and her mother, Purnima, were asked to stay put at home for a fortnight from March 1onwards, the fortnight-long process has left more questions unanswered than resolved. Archana casts doubt on the very purpose of quarantining them since they were forced to step out of their home within days.Quarantined families say BMC also exposed them to infection during the overnight testing procedure in Kasturba Hospital. Fake news on social media was among the nuisances that the Goregaon family faced, which led to them becoming targets of suspicion within their housing society’s WhatsApp group.Some quarantined families said more than the fear of the disease and boredom, it was the harassment of having their addresses and phone numbers put out in the public domain by the BMC that caused hardship. “I have received at least 500 phone calls from random people asking how to identify symptoms of the coronavirus, how to prevent it and how to combat the disease. I am infuriated that our personal information was freely disclosed like this,” said the Vile Parle resident.