Mumbai’s Dharavi slum erupted once again on Monday, as 57 more persons tested positive for Covid-19, taking the total number of infected cases in Asia’s biggest slum to 916.
A day after two more persons succumbed to coronavirus taking the total number of deaths to 29 and 26 others tested positive in Dharavi, 57 new infected cases were reported from various parts of this densely populated slum.
Matunga Labour camp, which has emerged as the most affected area, reported as many as eight Covid-19 positive cases on Monday. There was a seventeen- year-old among the seven newly infected persons, who comprised a 71-year-old man and others were in the age group of 31 years and 53 years. Six new infected cases had been reported from Matunga Labour camp on Sunday.
Dharavi Cross Road area was another where as many as six cases were reported on Monday.
Like in the previous days, new infected cases were reported from most of the localities in this densely populated slum.
What is worrying the health authorities is that during the last 40 days since the outbreak of the pandemic in Dharavi, there have already been 29 deaths in this slum, while the infected cases have crossed the 900-mark (916).
Despite creating containment zones and isolating the “contacts”, the authorities have so far not been able to arrest the spread of the pandemic in this slum.
Dharavi, a slum spread over 240 hectare area that is home to more than 4 lakh people, has been an area of concern for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) ever since the first couple deaths and infected cases were reported from this slum in the first week of April.
That Dharavi is on the BMC’s top agenda could be evidenced from the fact that Mumbai’s new Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal visited this slum and took stock of the situation hours after he assumed the office on Saturday.
During his visit to Dharavi, Chahal went around worst-affected localities of Mukund Nagar and Shastri Nagar and took stock of the situation there. He also visited a containment zone located near Tata Colony and interacted with the residents there.
Having apparently taken cognisance of the reports that public toilets in Dharavi have become a major source for the spread of Covid-19 in Dharavi, Chahal inspected a public toilet there.
Among other things, the new Municipal Commissioner advised the police personnel posted at Dharavi to enforce the lockdown norms sternly in the area in view of the rapid spread of the pandemic in the area.
He exhorted the BMC medical staff to intensify the tracing of Covid-19 “contacts” in the densely populated slum and put them in an institutional quarantine in a big way to prevent the rapid spread of the Covid-19 in the area.