Dharavi reports 16 coronavirus cases, highest spike in four months

The caseload in the densely populated area, known as Asia's largest slum, thus reached 4,066.

The slum-dominated Dharavi area in Mumbai recorded 16 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the highest daily rise since October, a senior official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

A BMC medical staffer collects the swab sample of a resident at Dharavi on Tuesday. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

The caseload in the densely populated area, known as Asia's largest slum, thus reached 4,066.

Of these, 3,699 patients have already recovered while there are 51 active cases.

Earlier, on October 23 last year, Dharavi had reported 18 new cases and since then, barring a few days, the number of new cases had been in single digit.

On some days the area did not record a single new case.

In the first week of February, the daily spike was in the range of zero to five, but the number of cases began to climb from the second week, as in the rest of Mumbai and Maharashtra.

"We are aggressively testing as many people as possible to curb the spread, so the number has risen," the BMC official said.

Spread over 2.5 sq km, Dharavi has a population of over 6.5 lakh.