Dharavi Records 30 New Cases, Total At 168, Including 11 Deaths
That brings the total number of confirmed infections to 168 in Mumbai’s biggest slum despite the lockdown.
Dharavi on Monday recorded 30 new Covid-19 cases, increasing the number of total confirmed infections to 168 in Mumbai’s biggest slum despite the lockdown.
Of the 30 cases, five were reported from Shastri Nagar area, 3 each from 60 feet road and Kalyanwadi, two each from Naik Nagar and Kunche Kurve Nagar, one case each from Minajuddin Khan Gala, PMGP Colony, Padmagopal Chawl, Dhorwada, Matunga Labour Camp and Mukund Nagar, and eight cases have been traced to Dharavi, though the exact residential area isn’t mentioned, according to Kiran Dighavkar, assistant commissioner in charge of the G/North Ward in Central Mumbai.
Among the latest to test positive for Covid-19 are 10 women aged between 20 years and 70 years and 20 men aged between 2 years and 60 years.
Between Saturday and Sunday, Dharavi added 36 new cases, said Dighavkar. “An 80 year old woman was declared dead at Sion Hospital on Friday.”
So far, 11 people have died because of complications related to the novel coronavirus in Dharavi, a sprawl of shanties spread over 240 hectares with a population of 8.5 lakh and over 13,000 small businesses.
“2484(20 doctors,25 engineers,50 nurses,170 CHVs (community health volunteers),& 2150 workers ) #coronawarriors of @mybmcWardGN are working tirelessly for #MissionDharavi,” Dighavkar had tweeted yesterday.
Dighavkar also said there are many reasons for the steep rise in positive cases in the last 4-5 days. “As soon as we found a handful of cases in Dharavi, we have identified the high risk zones in the slums. Apart from Dr Baliga Nagar, other areas are Mukund Nagar, Madina Nagar Muslim Nagar Social Nagar and Kalyanwadi,” he said. “The population of all these pockets is 1.25 lakh.”
We have decided to contain these pockets by providing all services at their doorstep, including food packets, groceries and medicines. “We have also organised dedicated fever camps in the area. Further, with the help of 24 private doctors we have formed 10 teams and did fever screenings in all these pockets,” he said.
Since the private doctors were local practitioners, many people from adjoining areas, too, consulted them, he said, adding that they claimed to have screened over 40,000 people in the past seven days and referred 443 people with symptoms for testing.
Among them, 83 persons tested positive, Dighavkar said. “These people and their high risks (contacts) are being successfully shifted to institutional quarantine.”
According to Dighavkar, there are three types of positive cases in Dharavi:
- Those who fell sick and got admitted to Sion Hospital, whose swabs tested positive.
- High-risk contacts of positive cases who were quarantined and tested.
- Fever camps/community screening where we screened more than 40,000 people and tested 443 and found 83 positive, he said.
The success of the fever camp/community screening is that we were able isolate most of the positive cases from high risk zones, he said. So far we have able to contain the spread in these five zones only. Rest of the cases outside zones had valid high risk contacts outside the ward, Dighavakar said.
- Total number of cases: 168
- Total number of tests in Dharavi : 657
- Total containment zones :37
- Total food distribution: 2.54 lakh (12,000 each for lunch and dinner)
- Groceries: 19,000 packets
- Medicines : 1.89 lakh
According to Maharashtra health ministry’s media bulletin on Monday, 466 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in the state taking the tally to 4,666 cases. The total number of cases in Mumbai stands at 3,032.