For the first time since the outbreak of Covid-19 in Dharavi on April 1 this year, Asia’s largest slum went without even a single case on Friday, even as Maharashtra logged 3,431 fresh infections and 71 deaths.
Once considered one of the Covid-19 hotspots in Mumbai, Dharavi has just 12 “active cases” and the infected persons are being treated at local hospitals.
Expressing his happiness over Dharavi’s complete turn-around, Mumbai Municipal Commissioner I S Chahal said: “We salute the people of Dharavi for their full cooperation. Our SOPs and other health guidelines have helped matters”.
Dharavi has come a long way since the first Covid-19 infection and death were reported from Dharavi on April 1. There have been a total 3,788 infections in this most-congested slum.
It may be recalled that the BMC and the state government successfully adopted “chase the virus” at Dharavi slum in north-central Mumbai where the authorities have contained the spread of virus. This slum had attracted national as well as international attention as a large number of infections were reported in April, May and June, sending the health authorities in Mumbai and Maharashtra into a tizzy.
Being densely populated (2,27,136 persons/ sq. km), Dharavi had 491 cases in April 2020 with a 12% growth rate and a case doubling period of 18 days. The proactive measures adopted by BMC reduced the COVID-19 growth rate to 4.3 per cent in May 2020 and further to 1.02% in June. These measures also ensured an improved case doubling time to 43 days in May 2020 and 78 days in June 2020.
Several challenges presented themselves to BMC in Dharavi where 80% population depends on community toilets. BMC adopted a model of actively following four T’s – Tracing, Tracking, Testing and Treating. This approach included activities like proactive screening. While 47,500 people were covered by doctors and private clinics in house-to-house screening, about 14,970 people were screened with the help of Mobile Vans, and 4,76,775 were surveyed by BMC health workers.
Fever clinics were set up for screening high risk categories such as elderly/senior citizens. This helped to screen 3.6 lakh people. Also, around 8246 senior Citizens were surveyed and as part of its policy of ‘Timely Separation’, they were separated from the other community to effectively limit the transmission of the disease.
To tackle the issue of manpower to carry out proactive screening in high risk zones, BMC forged strategic public private partnerships in containment measures and all available ‘private’ practitioners were mobilized. BMC provided the private doctors with PPE Kits, thermal scanners, pulse Oxymeters, masks and gloves and started Door-to-Door screening in high risk zones and all suspects were identified.
BMC encouraged all practitioners to open their clinics to attend to the patients and communicate to BMC in case any COVID1-9 suspects were found. BMC sanitised the clinics of the private practitioners and provided them all necessary support. To augment health infrastructure in the city, all private hospitals were brought onboard and acquired for treatment.
Meanwhile, with 3431 fresh infections reported in Maharashtra on Friday, the total infections in the state climbed from 19,09,951 to 19,13,382. Similarly, with 71 new deaths, the total toll in the state rose from 49,058 to 498,129.
As 1427 patients were discharged from the hospitals across the state after full recovery, the total number of people discharged from the hospitals since the second week of March this year went up to 18,06,298. The recovery rate in the state dropped marginally from from 94.5 per cent to 94.4 per cent.
With 11 new deaths, the total number of deaths went up from 11045 to 11,056, while the infected cases rose by 596 to trigger a jump in the total infections from 2,89,204 to 289800.
Meanwhile, the number of “active cases” total cases in the state rose from 54,891 to 56,823 . The fatality rate in the state stood at 2.57 per cent.
Pune district, which continued to be the worst-affected city-district in Maharashtra, saw the total number of cases increase from 3,69,065 to 3,69,631, while the total number of deaths in Pune increased from 7713 to 7721.
Thane district remained in the third spot --after Pune and Mumbai – after the total number of infections rose from 2,51,880 to 2,52,273, while the total deaths climbed from 5527 to 5540.
Of the 1,24,01,637 samples sent to laboratories, 19,13,382 have tested positive (15.43 per cent) for COVID-19 until Friday.
Currently, 4,77,528 people are in home quarantine while 3,695 people are in institutional quarantine.