While the country is in a fight with the novel coronavirus, India has reported 4,970 cases in the last 24 hours. Dharavi, in Mumbai, has reported 26 new cases of COVID-19. The total number of infections due to the pandemic has now crossed the 1 lakh-mark to reach 101,139 from 96,169 on Monday while the death toll rose to 3,163 on Tuesday.
Dharavi, being one of the largest slums in Asia has witnessed a rise in cases exponentially. Lack of space, along with the usage of a community toilet has proven to be a problem for the people living in these slums.
The BMC had set up 1,459 containment zones earlier throughout Mumbai, even though 321 zones were opened up as they had not reported any new case for past 14 days. With over 1 million people living in five square kilometre area, Dharavi is Mumbai's most densely populated area and has been under the scanner for a while now, recording 783 cases with 21 deaths. BMC is also touted to distribute anti-malarial Hydroxychloroqune tablets among Dharavi residents to boost their immunity and protect them from the coronavirus.
Moreover, the BMC has announced that existing isolation bed capacity will soon be increased from 3000 to 4750. With the rise in cases, the government has not lifted the lockdown in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region with CM Thackeray assuring that trains will not resume operations.
Globally, 4.8 million people have been infected with the coronavirus, while over 3.18 lakh casualties have been reported. World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday said he will “initiate an independent evaluation” at “the earliest appropriate moment”. Beijing, which has been under mounting global pressure, also seemed to have relented on its opposition for an inquiry into the origin of the virus, believed to be a wet market in Wuhan.
Share
Tweet
