South Mumbai is witnessing a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases with many positive patients in the city hailing from areas such as Worli, Prabhadevi, Malabar Hill, and Byculla.
Four administrative wards in the city — G South (Worli, Prabhadevi), E (Byculla), K West (Andheri W) and D (Malabar Hill, Tardeo) — have recorded the highest number of COVID-19 cases.
On April 5, G South reported 68 cases, E reported 44, K West 37 and D 34. The next day the numbers rose to 78, 48, 40 and 43 respectively. On April 7, G South reported 133 cases, E 59, D 47 and K West 43.
G South ward consists of Worli Koliwada, Adarsh Nagar, Worli police camp, which have reported the highest cases owing to large-scale testing. All three areas are located in containment zones. In Byculla, areas such as Agripada, Mominpura, BIT chawl, Nagpada, Belasis Road, and parts of Kamathipura have seen a rise in positive cases.
In D ward, cases were found in Bhagwandas chawl, Walkeshwar Road, Malabar Hill, and Bhulabhai Desai Road. In K West ward, cases were detected near the BMC office, Bhavans College, Infinity Mall, and parts of Jogeshwari.
Attributing the rise in numbers to increased testing, The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in a statement said, “Even though it may seem that the number of patients is increasing, it is actually because we have undertaken vigorous detection and separating positive patients from the rest. Through the 13 labs testing samples in the city, the BMC has carried out 14,000 tests, of which 9,000 were in the past one week. The BMC has also requisitioned 11,300 beds in various hotels, lodges, dormitories to quarantine people.”
The BMC’s decision to set up fever clinics at 10 locations has also paid off as 1,000 people were screened in the past five days. Of these, 168 people were tested and three were found to be positive.
In a note issued on Wednesday, the BMC said, “Today’s positive cases are 106, of which 51 are from G South ward and 99% from high-risk contacts who have been shifted from the slum, quarantined and tested proactively. This clearly shows that our focussed efforts of contact tracing are bearing fruit and keeping the remaining community safe from infection.”
