Dharavi’s virus count crosses 1,000; toll at 40

With 66 new cases reported on Wednesday, Dharavi, India’s largest slum cluster in Mumbai, crossed the 1,000 mark for Covid-19 cases. The case count has touched 1,028, with 40 deaths.

HT Image

The first case in Dharavi was reported on April 1. The area recorded 100 cases on April 17 and breached the 500-case mark on May 3 and 200-case mark by April 24. The toll in Dharavi also doubled in nine days from 20 deaths on May 3 to 40 as of May 13.

Mumbai reported highest single-day spike in the number of deaths with 40 deaths being reported on Wednesday, taking the total to 596. Overall, the city reported 800 cases on Wednesday, taking the total to 15,747.

In a change of strategy dictated by new Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief Iqbal Singh Chahal, the civic body has reduced the number of containment zones in Dharavi to 20 from 213 by merging smaller areas. Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner of BMC’s G-North ward under which Dharavi falls, said, “We have clubbed the containment zones and we are also appointing citizens as volunteers to ensure people do not venture out of their houses in containment zones. We are distributing maximum number of food packets in Dharavi, considering the volume of detection is high.”

A total of 2,500 citizens identified as high-risk are under institutional quarantine facility. Chahal has also directed all ward officers to map high-risk areas within their containment zones and target slums and congested areas. These zones will have stricter rules for movement.

Other areas like Dadar and Mahim which also come under G-North ward have also seen a steady increase in number of cases. In Dadar, 133 cases along with seven deaths were reported as of Wednesday, followed by 155 cases in Mahim with seven deaths.

The number of cases in G-North ward now stands at 1,316, of which 1,028 cases are from Dharavi. Other administrative wards where cases have crossed the 1,000 mark include G-South ward consisting of Worli and Prabhadevi; and E ward, including Mazagaon, Byculla.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, a senior BMC official tested positive, following which he was sent into isolation. His close contact, an IAS officer from BMC, has been quarantined. The BMC has, however, not provided any figures on the total number of BMC officials who have tested positive.

Wednesday also saw a series of visits by top IAS officials, including Chahal, to several quarantine facilities set up by BMC, community kitchens where food is cooked for distribution to migrants and those in need of relief.

Chahal along with additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani visited several quarantine facilities, including the one at NSCI Worli and Race Course in Mahalaxmi where 300 beds for quarantining patients is set to come up. They also visited the MMRDA Grounds in Bandra-Kurla Complex, where 1,000 beds have been set up.