In Mumbai, buildings, high-rises report more Covid cases than slums

The number of sealed buildings and floors in Mumbai increased, indicating that Covid cases are more in middle-class localities like buildings and high-rises than slums and chawls

As new Covid-19 cases are on the rise in Mumbai, the number of sealed buildings and floors increased, indicating that cases are more in middle class localities than slums and chawls which mostly house working class population of the city.

According to BMC protocol, slums in Mumbai are declared containment zone when there are five or more Covid cases in the particular chawl or slum and in case of high-rises, buildings are sealed when five or more cases are reported from a particular building (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

According to data from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), in the past two weeks, the number of sealed buildings has doubled and sealed floors increased by around 43%. However, there has been no increase in containment zones in past two week.

According to BMC protocol, a chawl or a slum is declared as containment zone when there are five or more Covid cases in the particular chawl or slum and in case of high-rises, a building is sealed when five or more cases are reported from a particular building. However, in case of one to four cases, only that particular floor of the building is sealed.

As per BMC data, on August 22, 22 buildings and 1,089 floors were sealed. This number went up to 50 on September 8 in case of sealed buildings and 1,564 in case of sealed floors. Andheri, Vile Parle, Khar, Santacruz, Bandra, Malabar Hill, Grant Road are among areas in the city with the highest of five or more sealed buildings.

The city has zero containment zones since the past month. According to BMC officials, this indicates that cases are majorly coming from buildings and high-rises. A BMC official said, “One of the major reasons for maximum cases coming from high-rises is because those residing in buildings are getting tested on their own upon seeing symptoms or post travelling. Due to this, we are having increased number of Covid cases from high-rises amid relaxations.”

HT had on Tuesday reported how despite the increase in number of cases, BMC has maintained that the spike is not the beginning of the third wave and that the next 30 days would be crucial. Civic officials said there might be a further spike a fortnight after the Ganpati festival which begins on Friday.

On Thursday, the city reported 457 new Covid cases and two deaths taking tally to 733,896 and toll to 16,006. Mumbai clocked 711,147 recoveries and recovery rate is 96%. There are currently 4,298 active cases and the mortality rate is 2.18%.

Further, 13,709 duplicate cases were removed from overall cases, leading to a dip in cumulative cases in Mumbai, as per state health department.

Meanwhile, on account of Ganesh festival on Friday, vaccination drive will remain shut and will resume on Saturday. On Thursday, 131,204 citizens were vaccinated. So far, 10,357,072 vaccine doses have been administered.