COVID-19: High-rises report more cases than slums in Mumbai

MUMBAI: For the first time since the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic started, Asia’s largest slum Dharavi in Mumbai did not report a single case on Monday while localities with high concentration of high-rises are still reporting positive cases every day.According to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), since May 31 Dharavi has seen a daily count of one to three fresh infections. Three new cases were reported in Dadar and six in Mahim.

Both these areas, which have a number of high-rises and tall towers, as well as Dharavi, come under BMC’s G-North civic ward.In G-North, there are a total of 300 active cases that include 152 cases in Dadar, 135 in Mahim and only 13 in Dharavi.Since the outbreak of the pandemic last year, the ward has reported a total of 26,294 hospital admissions for Covid treatment of which 25,249 are discharged. Of these, 9,557 are from Dadar and 9,876 from Mahim and 6,861 from Dharavi.

The numbers clearly show that the spread of the infection was more in high-rise buildings than slums. Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner, G-North, said the Mumbai Model and Dharavi model to defeat the Covid-19 are hailed for their efficient working, with the BMC focusing on people’s participation to defeat the virus.

“During the first wave also, people told us Dharavi is sitting on a powder keg in terms of explosion of cases. It was a hotspot in the beginning but using the ‘track, test and treat’ formula helped reduce not only the positivity rate, also the mortality rate. We took support of local NGOs and social workers,” the official said.

Dighavkar said in Dharavi, the local health posts are very strong. “Our health workers reached out to every slum and checked them before the situation went out of hand. We created a data bank of 10 lakh people and provided treatment as per requirements. We developed a jumbo Covid-19 centre to treat the patients.”

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