Mumbai With a population of over 7 lakhs, R (North) ward, which covers Dahisar and parts of Borivali, has not only managed to figure in the list of three civic wards in the city that are least-affected by COVID19 cases, 45 per cent of the total COVID19 patients reported from the ward have been cured and discharged.
The Assistant Municipal Commissioner of R (North) ward has attributed the low number of cases to civic officials and police authorities working in coordination, and effective monitoring.
While other civic wards, especially in South Mumbai, have been reporting a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases on a daily basis, R (North) on the contrary had managed to restrict the number of cases to below 50 till Sunday.
As per BMC data released on Sunday, the ward recorded a total of 33 cases, the lowest in the city. Of these, 13 people previously tested positive have been fully cured and discharged, BMC data released on Sunday reveals.
"Our major concern is slums, as we have a few in our ward. Hence, our focus has been on community and public toilets, as these become focal points of transmission during such virus outbreaks. Before the lockdown itself, we have been disinfecting community toilets (in slums) twice a day.
Similar exercise is being done in chawls and markets, where a huge number of people usually gather," said Sandhya Nandedkar, assistant municipal commissioner of R (North) ward told The Free Press Journal.
"We had also scattered the markets across five grounds. No hawker or street vendors are allowed to carry out their business anywhere apart from these grounds, which are monitored regularly by local police. We are also monitoring entry and exit of people in containment zones, with the help of police," Nandedkar added.
"We were given a central wholesale market at Dahisar check naka; we monitored it for a week and changed the way it was operating several times. From line formation, to seating, to vendors etc. However till midnight, 500-1000 people thronged this market, and social distancing went for a toss there. Hence, we had to shut down the market for safety reasons," Nandedkar said.
R (North) ward had 17 containment zones, of which five have been released and the remaining 12 are still active. So far, the ward has identified over 321 high-risk contacts and 1,600 low-risk contacts of COVID-19 patients. Nandedkar added, “For every positive patient, we have traced 15 to 20 highrisk contacts. Ambawadi, which saw eight cases, has not reported a single case in the past 18 days.
We have not identified any cluster cases, but two areas where we found maximum number of cases are Ambawadi and Shiv Tekdi slums. We held fever camps in Ganpat Patil Nagar, even though it did not report a single case. Of the 11 swabs taken so far, none have tested positive. If we were not doing enough, more cases would have come up in Ambawadi and Shiv Tekdi slums."
She said, "Just one of the total 33 cases reported in the ward had foreign travel history. The others we suspect are local community transfers. We have cases who have reported a history of inter/intra state travel or a few who visited hospitals. Tracing their contacts too, was very challenging.
In the majority of cases, we have still not figured out how they could have contracted the virus? And that’s where the theory of slum community transfer emerges." Sheetal Mhatre, Shiv Sena Corporator of Ward no 7 in R (North) said, "In my ward, not a single person tested positive in my ward. We are strictly following the lockdown imposed.
We are not allowing a single hawker or vendor on the street, to discourage crowding on the street. We have involved ALMs, organising groups and committees of various Navratri and Ganesh Mandals to keep a vigil on violation lockdowns. This has been possible due to teamwork and good coordination among public representatives, citizens, police and BMC."
