Kalyan-Dombivli was steadily approaching towards an unfortunate milestone - being one of the biggest coronavirus hotspots in Mumbai. Well, the region has now overtaken Thane which has reported a total of 14,114 cases so far while there are 5,608 active cases.
As of Tuesday, Kalyan-Dombivli has seen a total of 207 deaths while there are 6,433 active cases in the region. This comes as a bit of a surprise for some given that Kalyan-Dombivli had things pretty much under control in early May. However, it didn’t take long for cases to mount and spiral out of control over the subsequent weeks.
The recent addition of cases has officially made Kalyan-Dombivli the largest COVID-19 hotspot in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Residents and activists from the area have blamed the lack of preparedness by the Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) to fight the deadly virus.
It is worth noting that in early May, the KDMC had considered barring essential workers residing under its jurisdiction from returning back from their duties given that they were considered to be one of the biggest sources of the outbreak at the time. However, following significant public outrage after this announcement, the KDMC had to rescind its directive.
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Residents also mentioned that the KDMC is underequipped to handle a worst-case scenario situation given that the region only has 4,471 COVID-19 beds spread across 20 health centres in Kalyan-Dombivli. Additionally, there are fingers being pointed at the corporation’s decision to enforce a total lockdown only by July 2 despite seeing a surge in cases long before that.
Activists added that 47% of the 30,000 COVID-19 tests conducted in the region so far have returned COVID-19, which is an alarming statistic for any region. It is said that the authorities failed to “chase the virus” as the BMC did in areas like Dharavi, which has managed to bring the outbreak under control thanks to extensive screening and testing.
The KDMC has said that it has ramped up testing of patients and that local corporators have been asked to make sure symptomatic patients are sent to nearby fever clinics. However, residents dispute this by saying that the authorities are not testing family members or contacts of positive patients, which defeats the entire purpose.
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