Mumbai’s Dharavi slum began to feel the heat of coronavirus on Friday, as one more person succumbed to Covid-19 taking the total number of cases to ten and with 15 fresh positive cases the total number of infected cases crossed 100-mark in Asia’s largest slum.
A day after 26 persons tested positive for the pandemic, a 62-year-old person from Dharavi’s Matunga Labour Camp died of Coronavirus at the Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital and Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College at Sion in north-central Mumbai.
With 15 fresh infected cases, the total number of infected cases in this densely populated slum mounted to 101.
For the first time, four infected cases were reported from Matunga Labour Camp.
Of the four infected persons, one person died, causing considerable anxiety among people in this area.
Apart from the four cases, the other new infected cases were reported from Muslim Nagar (three), Indira Nagar (three), Social Nagar (two), Lakshmi chawl, Janata Society and Suryadaya society (one each).
With the death that took place on Friday, the total number of deaths in Dharavi rose to 10. Of the remaining fatalities in Dharavi, two each deaths have been reported from Dr Baliga Nagar and Kalyanwadi, while one death has been reported from Musilim Nagar, Social Nagar and Nehru Chawl.
That the Coronavirus has invaded steadily into Dharavi can be evidenced from the fact that the pandemic cases have been reported from a majority of pockets of this vast slum.
For, the infected cases that have been reported so far are from: Muslim Nagar-21, Mukund Nagar-18, Social Nagar-10, Janata Society –9, Baliganagar –5, Kalyanwadi, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, Shastry Nagar, Matunga Labour Camp and Indira Chawl – four each, Vaibhav Apartments, Murungan Chawl, Suryoday Society, Lakshmi chawl, Madina Nagar – two each, Dhavada chawl, PMGP Colony, Nehru Chawl, Gulmohar Chawl, Sairaj Nagar,Transit Camp, Ramaji Chawl and Shivshakti Nagar
After the first few positive cases of Covid-19 were reported in Dharavi in the first week of this month, an anxious city civic health machinery has held several fever clinics in this slum.
Since early last week, health workers have been conducting door-to-door screening of all the Dharavi residents. Simultaneously, a team of local private doctors of Dharavi and civic medical staff have been checking temperature and enquiring the residents about their travel history.
The Birhanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been constantly monitoring the situation in this slum.
The city police, who are assisting the BMC in its efforts to check the spread of the Coronavirus, has been using drones to monitor the movement of people, if any, in the congested lanes of Dharavi, where the authorities have been enforcing a total lockdown.