Dharavi reported its highest single day tally on Sunday, reporting 34 new cases. Thus, the area has so far recorded 275 cases including 14 deaths.
Dharavi reported its first case and death on April 1. Within 26 days, its tally touched 275 on Sunday. Cases were reported from Social Nagar, Mukund Nagar, Muslim Nagar, PMGP Colony. Besides, cases were reported from newer parts including Vijay Nagar, Shatabdi Nagar, Palkar chawl, Kamla Nehru Nagar, Dhorwada.
After a Central team recommended to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to increase its capacity of institutional quarantine, the BMC has increased it from 1,000 to 2,300. These will be used to house high-risk contacts of patients or asymptomatic positive contacts. Besides, it has taken over a private school with a capacity of 700 for institutional quarantine.
Reopening of clinics
The BMC has directed the Mahim-Dharavi Medical Practitioners’ Association to reopen clinics to provide medical services to Dharavi residents. The clinics will further refer suspected COVID-19 patients to the BMC, who will quarantine them, screen them at its own level and if required, test them. The BMC will provide the doctors with PPEs and other medical equipment and undertake sanitisation of the clinics. The doctors have been roped in as residents are familiar with them and are more likely to report symptoms. The same association also undertook fever screening with the BMC and screened around 50,000 residents.
