As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to mount in Mumbai, civic data reveals that the city has seen a 22 per cent reduction in containment zones between June 9 and July 28, 2020. However, the number of sealed buildings in the city have increased in the same period, while the cases have also increased from 18,957 to 30,781.
Civic officials mentioned that while lockdowns and containment zones have practically no scope for movement, the reopening of some areas have contributed to the spread of the virus. For example, visitors and guests at high-rises or other housing societies may not be monitored or screened adequately, hence contributing to the spread of the deadly virus.
One of the members of the State COVID-19 task force, Dr Shashank Joshi said - “The virus came from international travellers, who gave it to their domestic help and drivers. From the slums, it then moved to high-rises and housing societies. This also shows that social distancing was not followed in slums and a localised transmission occurred there, but now they have got immune to it as several of them have developed antibodies.”
The BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) started conducting serological surveys in the city to determine the levels of antibodies among residents. The survey was done in collaboration with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research as well as NITI Aayog starting July 3.
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Diving deeper into the serosurvey data, a total of 6,936 people from wards R North, M West and F North were tested for antibodies. Of these, around 57 per cent of the slum population had generated antibodies, while 16 per cent of the people from other residential areas were found to have developed COVID-19 antigen.
While the BMC has managed to contain the spread of the virus in slums, the city’s high-rises and residential societies remain a risk. Keeping this in mind, the civic body started campaigns in such residential areas to educate users about the spread of the virus, and also provide steps to safeguard people’s movements amidst a pandemic.
Officials added that slum hotspots that were reporting up to 20 cases per day have now effectively fallen to zero. However, Dharavi recorded six new cases of the virus on Thursday, so it’s clear that there’s no scope for complacency from the locals or the civic authorities.
Clearly, the fight against COVID-19 is far from over as Mumbai recorded 1,208 new cases and 53 deaths. Of those deceased, 32 patients were aged above 60, while 20 were between the ages of 40 and 60, and one patient was aged below 40.
The rate of recovery is growing steadily as well with 1,120 patients leaving the hospital on Thursday after healing from the virus. This takes the total number of COVID-19 recoveries in the city to 86,447.
However, this doesn’t take into account the people who have caught the virus and fought it off with antibodies. These people are less likely to have been hospitalized which means the BMC cannot have an accurate record of the same.