Alarm bells started ringing in Maharashtra medical circles on Thursday, as Mumbai’s Dharavi locality reported third Covid-19 death and 14 positive pandemic cases, even as the police and health authorities began enforcing the lockdown measures strictly in Asia’s largest slum.
A 70-year-old woman from Kalyanwadi in Dharavi locality died of Coronavirus earlier in the day, taking the number of deaths to three.
A high-risk patient, the deceased woman had been undergoing treatment at the KEM Hospital. Her family members had been home-quarantined. “The swab samples of the family members of the deceased, her neighbours and those with whom she had come in contact with have been sent for clinical analysis,” a senior BMC official said.
The first Covid-19 death had taken place on April 1, a 56-year-old resident of Dharavi’s Shahunagar area, succumbed to the pandemic. On Tuesday, a 64-year-old patient, who had been hospitalised with fever, cough and breathlessness on Tuesday, succumbed on the same day. His death was confirmed by the BMC on Wednesday.
In an update released on Thursday, the BMC confirmed the third death in Dharavi – of a 70 year-old woman – and said that the total number of infected cases had risen to 14 in the largest slum.
The infected cases that have been reported so far included: four cases from Dr Baliga Nagar where one person died and three persons are hospitalised, the death of a 35-year-old male doctor from Vaibhav Apartment, two cases – that of men aged 49 years and 25 years – from Mukund Nagar, the case of a 21-year youngster from Madina Nagar, the case of a 35 year man from Dhanwada Chawl who lives in Wadala hostel and that of a 50-year-old woman from Muslim Nagar.
Meanwhile, following the total lockdown, there has been no moment of people on the roads, while all shops and establishments, fruit/vegetable markets or vendors, hawkers, etc, have been shut down, barring medical stores in Dharavi.
In an effort to reduce inconvenience to the local residents, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), plans to roll out a scheme for doorstep delivery of essentials in the coming days.
State Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad, who represents Dharavi constituency, had – along with Health Minister Rajesh Tope -- visited hospitals and quarantine centres in her constituency on Wednesday to take stock of the situation there.
Talking to media persons after she attended a State Cabinet meeting earlier in the day, Gaikwad said: “We have requested Home Minister Anil Deshmukh to instruct the local police officials to enforce the lockdown strictly in Dharavi to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. We have also requested the government to provide more ventilators for the local hospitals and speed up the process of making available test reports of those who are in quarantine. This is essential because more and more cases coming to hospitals”.
Meanwhile, the BMC authorities have identified 10 hotspots within Dharavi , which is spread over 240-hectare area, and are maintaining vigilance on matters relating to health in the area. There are 60,000 to 70,000 families (more three lakh people) in Dharavi.
Dharavi has several business units -- right from textiles to pottery to fabrication to leather industry. Plastic recycling and garbage segregation too is done here. Mainly a hub of cottage industries, it has an estimated 5,000 business entities and 15,000 single-room factories.