Mumbai: With coronavirus pandemic rapidly spreading its tentacles in localities across the city, the BMC has created as many as 146 ‘containment zones’ in Mumbai.
Residents of these areas have been instructed not to leave their homes or the premises they have been cordoned in.The civic body said it has already made arrangements to cater to the essential needs of the people living in these containment zones.
Bimbisar Nagar in Goregaon East is one such area. After a student who returned from London and her domestic help tested positive for Covid 19 on Monday, six buildings in the area were declared a ‘containment zone’ and sealed by the civic body on Tuesday morning. The test results of the young woman, who was pursuing higher education in London, arrived on Monday.
Samples of her parents and brother were tested on Tuesday. The domestic help of the family, who is a resident of Bandrekar wadi slum in Jogeshwari (East), has tested positive too. All four members of the family, including the young woman, have been taken to Hiranandani Hospital in Powai.
The BMC on Tuesday not only sealed six buildings in a row in the area, but even vegetable vendors and those working in medical shops in the periphery have been tested and their establishments disinfected.
Many Marathi artistes, including actor and filmmaker Subodh Bhave, Jaywant Wadkar and actress Atisha Naik, are all residents of Bimbisar Nagar. "The case of the student who returned from London came to light only on Sunday. Her results arrived only on Monday evening.
Following this, samples of her parents have been sent for lab testing. People in the area do not take the government's warning seriously; hence the only option is to seal the contaminated zone and prevent people from going out and others from coming in," said Rekha Ramvashi, local corporator.
The entire Bimbisar Nagar area has an alphabet 'Q' like structure: while the circular region is unaffected and open, six buildings which have been sealed are in the tail/strip of the 'Q'.
"We are testing vegetable vendors in the periphery who might have meet this family. The girl who tested positive reportedly went to a medical shop in the colony. We have disinfected the shop and the area around it.
The process of fumigation and disinfecting of the affected area has already begun. People in the locality who met the girl and her family in the area have been advised to self-isolate for 14 days," said an official of the P (South) ward.
Meanwhile, Bandrekr Wadi slum in Jogeshwari, too, was fumigated and disinfectants were sprayed across the area where the Bimbisar Nagar family’s domestic help lived.
"The slum is densely populated. We must ensure that people do not come out of their homes until we complete the process of disinfection. Also, we have before us a mammoth task of tracing close contacts.
People in such slums use community toilets, which can become the epicentre of infection. We are not leaving any stone unturned to ensure any outbreak in the area is contained," said a senior BMC official.
