Mumbai civic body to seal entire building if Covid-19 case detected in these areas

The BMC said all residents of housing societies in Dahisar, Borivli, Kandivli and Malad will have to be quarantined for 14 days if a Covid-19 case was detected here and no entry and exit will be allowed during this period.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday decided to seal the entire building, instead of only the particular floor where a Covid-19 case was detected, across some areas in the western suburbs, owing to the higher incidence of infections in high rises and housing societies.

Health care staff check the temperature and pulse rate of the residents of Kurar Village at Malad(E) during Covid-19 pandemic in Mumbai on Thursday. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

The locations are Dahisar, Borivli, Kandivli and Malad, where a high number of cases are coming from non-slum areas.

The BMC said all residents of these housing societies will have to be quarantined for 14 days if a case was detected here and no entry and exit will be allowed during this period.

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According to BMC officials, the positivity percentage among high-risk contacts of cases has gone up from 20-25% to 40% in Dahisar, Borivli and Kandivli. A BMC official said, “This means that several high-risk contact residents are positive and maybe the asymptomatic ones are going out and spreading the virus to others. Hence, this decision has been taken.”

Earlier, in a circular dated May 18, the BMC had changed its protocol for sealing buildings, wherein only floors having cases were being sealed. However, the circular at that time noted that it might seal the entire building depending on the situation.

Sandhya Nandekar, assistant municipal commissioner of BMC’s R-North ward covering Dahisar and Borivli area, said, “We have decided to seal the entire building for breaking the chain. In my ward, most cases are from non-slums areas, which means that those in high-rises are not taking precautions. Hence, to break the chain, such a decision has been taken for my ward and other wards covering Borivli and Kandivli.”

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However, residents have said that this was causing them inconvenience, especially when the state government and Central government has given relaxations in terms of lockdown, citing boosting economic activity. Ankit Arora, a resident from Borivli, said, “We have a business that opened up only a month ago with certain restrictions and now BMC is telling us to get quarantined for 14 days owing to a case in our society. This is injustice for those who do not have symptoms and the BMC should rather screen residents in these housing societies. It will cause huge loss to us as well as our employers as we will keep our operations shut.”

Local Shiv Sena leader Abhishek Ghosalkar ,from Borivli, said, “I have requested BMC to seal the entire building only when more than one active case is detected rather than sealing the entire building owing to just one case. Several residents have approached us saying it is difficult for them to sit home all the time owing to relaxations in lockdown norms.’’

HT had reported on July 21, that in the past one month, Mumbai has reported around 35,959 cases, of which 45% of the cases were reported from six areas. These areas include Mulund, Bhandup, Malad, Kandivli and Borivli, along with Andheri, where more than 2,000 cases have been reported in the past one month.

On Thursday, Mumbai recorded 1,245 fresh cases followed by 55 new deaths, taking the city’s case tally to 105,923, while the toll touched 5,930. The total number of discharged patients in Mumbai was 77,102 with a recovery rate of 72% and the total number of active cases stood at 22,598, as of Thursday. The mortality rate in the city as of Monday was 5.59%, and a doubling rate in the city was 61 days. One hotspot that has shown signs of drastic improvement — Dharavi — recorded six new cases on Thursday, bringing the area’s total case count to 2,513, of which 2,121 have been discharged.