Hotspots see dip in Covid cases, 3 wards in Mumbai see sharp rise in a week

Andheri, Bhandup, Dahisar see cases doubling at a faster rate

While hotspots such as Worli and Dharavi saw a decline, administrative wards of Andheri (K-East), Bhandup (S) and Dahisar (R-North) witnessed a spike in the number of cases reported in the past one week. The three wards have also seen a dip in doubling rate, indicating faster spread of infection. Doubling rate is the time taken for doubling of cases. Meanwhile, the city’s average doubling rate went up to 29 days as of Tuesday.

The city’s average doubling rate went up to 29 days as of Tuesday. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

Dahisar has recorded 324 cases in the past seven days, bringing its total to 1,046. The ward had 197 cases as of June 3. Among all 24 administrative wards, Dahisar has the lowest doubling rate of 13 days and the highest growth rate of 5.5%. Bhandup has recorded 793 cases during the past seven days, which brought the total to 3,166 and doubling rate to 19 days. It had 604 cases on June 3.

Areas closer to the airport in Andheri have reported 859 cases in the past seven days, with a doubling rate of 21 days. Its case count is now 4,223. From May 28 to June 3, the area had 696 cases and a doubling rate of 15 days.

Officials attributed the rise in numbers in certain areas to various reasons, including citizens flouting social distancing norms.

Prashant Sapkale, assistant municipal commissioner of K-East ward (Andheri), said, “There has been a spike in cases in the past 15 days. Although airport operations were discontinued, cargo operations were still on. I got a lot of patients from there. These gave index cases. They live in other areas, but they brought the infection to the ward.”

Sandhya Nandedkar, assistant municipal commissioner of R-North ward (Dahisar), said, “More than 50% of the cases are from buildings and very few cases are from slums. Citizens are not following social distancing norms and we are trying our best to maintain it. Several of the cases are from containment zones, however, we have also increased testings in the ward.”

BJP councillor from Dahisar Jagdish Oza said, “People are not following social distancing strictly. The spike in cases is because of lockdown relaxations.” Sarika Pawar, corporator from Bhandup, said, “A majority of the ward comprises slum pockets that have community toilets. The local ward office lacks in spreading awareness about social distancing among people. There is a huge crowd at vegetable markets even now.”

Dharavi, meanwhile, has seen its daily cases dip to 27 this month, from 47 in May. In Worli, the average number of daily cases in May was 60, which has now come down to 35-40. Worli witnessed a decline in numbers since mid-May, while the numbers in Dharavi started plunging since June 1. The authorities have attributed the improvement in Dharavi and Worli to screening maximum people, isolating and testing people. Dharavi reported 17 cases on Wednesday, and one new death.