Is quarantine possible in city’s slums, ask activists

With seven slum dwellers being diagnosed with Covid-19, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has ordered hundreds in slums to observe home quarantine. Activists

With seven slum dwellers being diagnosed with Covid-19, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has ordered hundreds in slums to observe home quarantine. Activists have questioned whether social distancing and isolation is possible in these densely-packed areas. Authorities say there is no evidence of the spread of Covid-19 having advanced to community transmission as of now.

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There are an estimated five million people living in the city’s slums. The seven who have contracted Covid-19 so far comprise two each from Ghatkopar and Kalina; and one each from Prabhadevi, Govandi and Cheetah Camp. In M (East) ward, 265 people have been kept in home quarantine. In Dharavi, 60 people have been home quarantined though no one has reported a case of Covid-19 so far .

Last week, a 37-year-old slum dweller from Kalina, with travel history to Italy, was diagnosed with Covid-19, which is caused by the Sars-Cov-2 virus. When he had returned to Mumbai in mid-March, he was asymptomatic and had cleared thermal scanning at the airport. Later, he developed a cough for which he visited a clinic in Kalina. He then went to Kasturba Hospital to get tested and was found Covid-positive. On March 25, the doctor from the Kalina clinic also tested positive . While the doctor is now being treated at SL Raheja Hospital and his family has tested negative for the virus, he had been seeing patients till March 23. This has left health officers with the uphill task of tracking all his patients.

Ten residents of a chawl in Parel have been quarantined after a 65-year-old woman, who used to live there and was admitted to Kasturba Hospital after testing positive for Covid-19. The woman died on Thursday. A slum in Ghatkopar has been sealed, with 50 people ordered into home quarantine, after a woman who works as domestic help tested positive for Sars-Cov-2 (she worked in the home of a US-returned couple) and transmitted it to a male neighbour. The domestic help, 55, was discharged from the hospital on Friday. “We have also sealed the entire slum and served notices to 50 people who have been kept in home quarantine,” said Ajitkumar Ambi, N-ward officer.

When asked if home quarantine is effective in slums, G (North) ward officer Kiran Dighavkar said, “It [Covid-19] is not an airborne infection. There is no chance the infection will spread if a suspected patient with no symptoms uses masks and gloves appropriately.”

The BMC also plans to provide those quarantined with soap and masks. “We have already started fumigating Dharavi slums from Saturday. We also plan to provide basic protective gear like masks and soap from MLA funds to people quarantined at home,” said Dighavkar.

However, activists have questioned whether quarantine in slums is effective. “Home quarantine means the person cannot step out of the room nor talk to anyone, which is not possible in chawls. The BMC must provide masks and gloves to these patients,” said activist Dr Ravikant Singh.

Health experts also said more testing should be carried out in slums. “There is a possibility that asymptomatic people carrying the virus are going undetected in the slums. Hence, we need more testing to identify those people,” said Anant Bhan, a researcher on global health policy.