With 35 fresh cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, Dadar has overtaken neighbouring Dharavi in Mumbai in the total and active cases.
According to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s figures, India’s largest slum cluster of Dharavi has 2,839 cases of which 99 are active, as of Wednesday.
Dadar, on the other hand, has 2,841 cases of which 440 are active, as of Wednesday. The BMC said Dadar’s count surpassed that of Dharavi owing to increased testing and also relaxations in the lockdown.
Covid-19 cases in neighbouring Mahim are around 2,543 cases of which 406 are active cases. HT had reported on August 29 that while the Covid-19 curve had started to flatten in Dharavi, the number of cases have doubled in neighbouring Mahim and Dadar in the last 40 to 60 days.
Out of the total cases in Dadar and Mahim area, more than 70 per cent of the cases have been reported post relaxations of lockdown starting from June 03, 2020
The BMC has maintained that the increase in the number of cases in Dharavi’s neighbouring Dadar and Mahim is only because of increased testing and relaxations of lockdown rules along with the Ganesh festival in the last week of August.
Kiran Dighavkar, Assistant Municipal Commissioner of G North Ward under which Dadar, Mahim and Dharavi areas fall said, “Our aim is to identify the infection by facilitating maximum amount of testing opportunities. Unlike Dharavi in initial days, 80 % of cases in Dadar are asymptomatic and have been found out due to pro active testing and fever camps.”
Dighavkar addded, “Most of the cases are independent cases than from high risk contacts. The reason behind this is that since unlock has happened people might be getting infected from various places. Our only target is to facilitate greater testing opportunities for people.”
The number of cases have doubled in case of Dadar in the last around 45 days from 1,444 on July 21 to 2,841 now.
Overall, the G North Ward under which areas like Dharavi, Dadar and Mahim falls has 8,223 cases, as of Wednesday of which 6,819 cases have recovered and 945 cases are active cases.
The mortality rate for the GN Ward has gone down in the last two months from 10.61 per cent on July 04 GN Ward to 6.23% as on Wednesday.
Source: Hindustan Times
