7 wards account for 50% of Covid-19 cases

With 807 cases, seven of the 24 wards in the city make up for more than 50% of the city’s count, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data,

With 807 cases, seven of the 24 wards in the city make up for more than 50% of the city’s count, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data, as on April 12. Till last week, two wards made up for 50% cases.

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Also, with the rise in cases, the BMC, on Monday, changed the classification for wards. Wards with more than or 70 cases were termed the one with the highest risk, followed by those with 35-70 cases, 15-34 cases and 1-14 cases. The BMC’s data for April 5 classified wards with more than 40 cases as the ones with highest risk, followed by 21-40 cases, 11-20 cases and 1-10 cases.

The most affected ward, as of Monday, is G-South, which covers Worli and Lower Parel, with 280 cases, followed by E ward (Byculla) with 120 cases. Other wards are D ward (Malabar Hill, Walkeshwar) with 97 cases, M-East (Govandi, Mankhurd) with 82 cases, H-East (Bandra, Khar, Santacruz) with 80 cases, G-North (Mahim and Dadar) with 77 cases and K-West (Andheri, Vile Parle) with 71 cases.

Meanwhile, in a meeting with senior civic officials on Monday, municipal commissioner Praveen Pardeshi directed all ward officers to identify open spaces or slots where vegetable and fruit markets can be set up while maintaining social distance. “We need to maintain a distance of 20ft between two vendors and 3.5ft between buyers. We can also allot spaces on major roads in the area,” said a ward officer of a suburban area.

The civic body has carried out this exercise in Chunnabhati, where a temporary market has been set up at Somaiya Ground or in Vikroli East, where a market has been set up in an open ground of a school. However, there is no clarity on how the civic body plans to streamline groceries. Currently, with every ward officer giving separate directives on timings and, in some cases, days when grocers can keep their shops open, there is confusion on ground. “I was told by our grocer today, he will keep his shop open. When I reached there, the shutters were down,’’ said Nitin Patel, a resident of Prabhadevi, which so far does not fall in a containment zone.

The BMC will not allow vegetable markets in any of the 381 containment zones, areas which are sealed as they saw positive cases or where close contacts of positive patients live.

A senior civic official said, “We are taking various measures to ensure that people do not move out. The situation in a couple of wards is bad.”