Coronavirus | Dharavi turns the corner with steep decline in COVID-19 cases

Maharashtra government., BMC aggressively conducted contact tracing, says Union Health Ministry.

June 21, 2020 08:34 pm | Updated July 07, 2020 10:41 am IST - NEW DELHI

The Ministry said being densely populated (2,27,136 persons/sq. km), Dharavi had 491 cases in April 2020 with a 12% growth rate and a case doubling period of 18 days.

The Ministry said being densely populated (2,27,136 persons/sq. km), Dharavi had 491 cases in April 2020 with a 12% growth rate and a case doubling period of 18 days.

The Union Health Ministry on Sunday said the Maharashtra government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have been able to effectively bring down the COVID-19 spread in Dharavi.

 

“They have actively ‘chased the virus’ and aggressively conducted targeted tracing of suspects,” the Ministry said.

Also Read | When a virus finds space in India’s largest slum

In a release on Sunday, the Ministry said being densely populated (2,27,136 persons/sq. km), Dharavi had 491 cases in April 2020 with a 12% growth rate and a case doubling period of 18 days.

“The proactive measures adopted by the BMC have reduced the growth rate to 4.3% in May and further to 1.02% in June. These measures also ensured an improved case doubling time to 43 days in May and 78 days in June.”

 

It said several challenges presented themselves to the BMC where 80% population depends on community toilets and about 8-10 people live in households/hutments which measure about 10ft x 10ft coupled with narrow lanes with 2-3 storied houses where often the ground floor is a house and the other floors are used as factories. Hence, there are severe limitations of physical distancing with no possibility of effective ‘Home Quarantine’.

Also Read | Dharavi needs a special plan to cope, says Maharashtra Education Minister

“The BMC adopted a model of actively following four T’s – Tracing, Tracking, Testing and Treating. A salient feature of its response strategy is strict enforcement of containment measures with three primary components — an effective containment strategy, conducting comprehensive testing and ensuring uninterrupted supply of goods and essential supplies to the community. Also only critical patients were moved outside Dharavi for admission to hospitals; 90% of the patients were treated inside Dharavi itself,” said the Ministry.

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.