Once a Covid hotspot, Dharavi sees simply three new instances, lowest in second wave

MUMBAI’S DHARAVI, the two.5 sq km sprawl referred to as Asia’s largest slum, recorded three new Covid instances on Wednesday, the bottom since February 11, when the second wave surged by town.
According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Dharavi has reported 6,798 instances since final yr’s outbreak. Of these, round 36 per cent (2,500) of instances had been recorded in March and April this yr.
Soon after the second wave started in mid-February, Dharavi recorded 10 day by day instances, its first double-digit tally for a day after a niche of 37 days. In March, the world was averaging 50 instances day by day. And by March 23, the 250-bed quarantine centre in Vanita Samaj Hall was full even because the energetic caseload rose to 180.
On April 8, the very best single-day improve was recorded at 99, sparking severe considerations. On May 1, Dharavi had 947 energetic instances. Wednesday’s information present 62 energetic instances.
Detailing the civic physique’s technique this time, Kiran Dighavkar, Assistant Municipal Commissioner (G North Ward), BMC, mentioned: “We went back to last year’s ‘Dharavi Model’ — screen, test and isolate.”
Dharavi is dwelling to an estimated 8.5-10 lakh folks, with roughly 40 per cent migrant staff, a number of of whom share cramped 10×10-feet rooms. For officers, this presents a frightening problem when it comes to social distancing and isolation.

And but, throughout the first wave, Dharavi managed to efficiently management the variety of day by day instances, which dipped to beneath 30 after September 2020, with no new instances reported in a interval of 24 hours on six events — as soon as in December final yr, on 4 days in January and as soon as in February this yr.
However, BMC ward officers didn’t discontinue fever clinics within the space, which helped in screening and isolating the slum inhabitants, officers mentioned.
By February-end, the BMC began conducting assessments at 5 centres within the space, with cellular testing vans deployed to cowl slim alleys. Similarly, vans had been deployed to make bulletins asking folks to be careful for Covid signs, which had been listed, and supply the situation of fever camps.
Since May 10, Dharavi has been recording a day by day drop within the instances. This is according to the drop in day by day instances throughout Mumbai, the place the variety of day by day instances had been within the vary of 300-500, rose to over a thousand by February, and spiked sharply in March and April.

On May 18, town’s day by day caseload dropped beneath 1,000 for the primary time since March 2. On Wednesday, town added 1,352 instances, taking the overall variety of instances to over 7 lakhs.
BMC officers mentioned the intention now’s to extend vaccination protection in Dharavi. A vaccination centre at an city well being centre, popularly referred to as ‘Chhota Sion Hospital’, was opened on March 22. After a tepid response within the first 10 days, the numbers picked up, reaching 600 inoculations on May 6. The centre has vaccinated 19,794 residents to date, of which the bulk are from Dharavi.
Two extra centres have been opened to enhance Dharavi’s vaccination rely: the transit camp faculty (May 7) has inoculated 1,348 folks and the SWC centre (May 12) 655.