Mumbai: Even as 60 per cent of the total 160 coronavirus positive cases in suburban Chembur are from slums, the civic authorities here are only sealing "specific areas" and not the entire slum pocket, to avoid further spread of the deadly virus.
The authorities are however, claiming to have been doing "enough" to contain the virus. Six slum pockets - PL Lokhande Marg, Ghatla village, Chembur Camp, Vashi Naka, Siddharth Colony and Anand Nagar have been recording higher number of cases from Chembur.
However, all these pockets (which have many specific areas within the slum) have not been declared as contaminated zones but only the specific areas have been sealed by civic authorities. For instance, the PL Lokhande Marg, which is has slums on least 1.6 km stretch, has many different areas in it. But these areas could be differentiated only based on a wall or a lane.
"These slum pockets have many small or huge number of homes together labelled as areas. And these areas are separated either by a lane or a wall," said a senior health officer from M West ward. "At least 60 per cent of the cases reported so far are from slums.
There have been over 15 deaths while 24 have fully recovered thus far" the officer confirmed. According to the officer, P L Lokhande Marg has become a kind of a "hotspot" in Chembur. "We have around 38 patients from different areas of Lokhande Marg.
Also, at least four have been discharged from these areas after they recovered from the virus," the officer too Free Press Journal. However, the authorities are not sealing the entire slum pocket. "We cannot seal the entire slum pocket, but we are only sealing the one or two lanes of the specific area, where the patient lives.
Sealing entire slum pocket is not being done as of now," the officer said, while accepting that since all the slums are located in proximity, residents here run a higher risk of getting infected. "Since all the areas in these slums are in proximity and the homes are situated just next to each other, there are higher risks of more citizens contracting the virus.
But we are only sealing the lanes or specific areas of the patient," the officer said. The officer further said that the it is not possible to stop people from coming out of their homes in slums. "We can make them aware of the disease and how it spreads. But we cannot force them to maintain personal hygiene.
We cannot enter their homes and wash their hands or even keep a vigil 24x7," the senior officer said. As per the officer, slum dwellers are not paying any heed to the advisories and the orders being passed from time-to-time. "We have even started making announcements in these areas but still people are coming out.
Now that Ramzan is about to start we are conducting meetings with all the local mosque committees to urge the community members to stay indoors," the officer said. Adding, "Since the major source of transmission in slums is because of toilets, we have started disinfecting all community toilets now thrice a day."
