Thursday continued to be a tough day for Dharavi as the region recorded 25 new COVID-19 cases. Dharavi’s total COVID-19 positive cases have now touched 214. The area also reported one death as of Thursday.
Separately, two civic workers from Dombivli and Titvala aged 53 and 42 years old have also reportedly tested positive for the virus. It is said that these sanitation workers were involved with drainage cleanup in Dharavi. After complaining of cough and fever, they were put under quarantine and subsequently tested with the results coming out on Thursday.
After a central inter-ministerial team visited Dharavi on Wednesday, the BMC has decided to ramp up quarantine facilities and has taken possession of a college in Matunga as well as 11 local lodging facilities. This will offer up to 800 beds for quarantine of affected patients’ contacts. The BMC will reportedly add another 500 beds anticipating a sharp rise in cases over the coming days.
Kiran Dighavkar, Assistant Municipal Commissioner, G-North Ward, said - “We shifted 600 slum dwellers on Thursday and will move 400 more on Friday. We have provided a separate room to high-risk contacts of patients such as family members and neighbours. The rooms have private toilets, so they can stay there with their families.”
The authorities are currently facing a tough task with regard to testing as the BMC has decided to test only those with symptoms. Meanwhile, high-risk patients are transferred to a quarantine facility to avoid the spread of the virus in congested areas.
One of the key factors in combating coronavirus is to test asymptomatic carriers as they can spread it around without being aware of it. However, the lack of proper testing infrastructure at the government’s disposal has been a detriment to this process. While private testing facilities are available, not all of them conduct tests for free, putting it beyond the reach of people residing in slums as well as daily wage earners.
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