Mumbai: Botched-up contact-tracing exercises and lapses in executing crucial measures to contain the spread of Coronavirus in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)'s E-ward - comprising areas like Mazgaon, Agripada, Nagpada and Madanpura -- has led to an exponential rise in Covid -19 cases here, BMC sources have revealed. In just four days, the number of COVID-19 cases in E ward has jumped from 69 cases (on April 9) to 120 cases (on April 13), reveals BMC’s latest data.
Assistant Municipal Commissioner (AMC) of E-ward, Alka Sasne, was transferred last Wednesday after Covid19 cases in the ward showed a significant increase.
The ward is now the second worst-hit zone in the city after the G (South) ward. A senior BMC officer, on condition of anonymity, said that the alleged mishandling of COVID-19 cases in the ward led to Sasne's transfer.
For instance, in Shirinbai Chawl at Morland Road, a 63- year-old man tested positive for coronavirus on April 4. However, for two days, none of his family members were identified as high-risk contacts; nor were they placed in any quarantine facility.
Following this, eight others from his family of 10 tested positive, including his son who is suspected to have spread the infection. In another case, in a slum pocket located on Shaikh Hafizuddin Marg, Madanpura, a man who was admitted at St. George hospital in Fort died of coronavirus infection on April 4.
However, Rais Shaikh, the MLA from Bhiwandi, and BMC corporator from Madanpura have alleged that the death was not recorded by the BMC.
"None of the E ward officials acknowledged that the man died of coronavirus. Hence, they did not identify his high-risk contacts. They later recorded it as suspected coronavirus death. Only after it was verified by the principal secretary health did they mention it as a confirmed coronavirus death on April 6,” said Shaikh.
The lapses in E-ward did not end here. According to local residents of Agripada, on April 6, a resident of Prabhat building in Agripada tested positive for COVID-19. Shockingly, it took the civic ward office a week to acknowledge the man's wife as a high-risk contact.
In another case, a doctor residing in B-ward tested positive for COVID-19, following which officials of B-ward sealed his housing society. "This doctor has his clinic in E-ward. However, the officials have neither sealed his clinic premises, nor traced his contacts in E-ward.
Tracing contacts is the priority after a person tests positive for COVID-19. There are 90 per cent chances he might have contracted the virus from one of his patients here," said Umar Baig, a local resident. Till April 5, E-ward had 19 COVID-19 cases.
The tally of confirmed cases now stands at 120. This includes 52 staffers from Wockhardt Hospital who have also tested positive. "Thirteen patients are from the earlier cases reported in two chawls of Byculla. Around 12 were detected on Sunday. There around 350 people who are under quarantine in the E-ward till date.
Efforts are being made to contain the spread. We are making sure all that was missed earlier are taken care of now,” Prashant Gaikwad, Assistant Municipal Commissioner (In-charge) E ward, told The Free Press Journal. After Sasane was transferred, another newly trained officer, Mrudula Ande, was appointed as AMC of the E ward. However, she too was transferred within three days.
The civic body then gave additional charge of the ward to Gaikwad, who is AMC of D ward. Gaikwad and his team are personally visiting the affected areas to ensure the lockdown is followed strictly.
“The previous ward officer didn’t pay attention to tracing index cases, due to which the number of cases in the ward escalated. Now that the damage is done, still, I hope things will fall in place.
Most numbers of cases have been reported in the densely populated areas of Madanpura and Agripada,” added Shaikh, the local corporator. Meanwhile, with four new positive COVID- 19 cases and one death in Dharavi on Monday, the area had recorded 49 positives cases so far, including five deaths.
