Amid the spike in the number of Covid-19 cases across the city, two municipal wards have less than 150 active cases presently. The B ward (Dongri, Masjid, and Sandhurst Road) and C ward (Mumbadevi, Kalbadevi, and Bhuleshwar) presently have the lowest growth rate and lowest case tally in Mumbai.
In the B ward, there are 75 active Covid-19 cases, in the C ward there are 135 active cases presently and throughout the past one week, the B ward reported cases only in single digits. Between February 28 and March 6, a total of 26 cases were reported from the B ward, and 60 cases were reported from the C ward.
Chakrapani Alle, an assistant municipal commissioner, who is in charge of both these wards said that since the pandemic broke out last year, the main focus of the civic officials has been aggressive tracing of contacts.
“Even if there is only one positive case, we are tracking all the closed contacts of the patients and isolating them at the earliest, following which volunteers from our war room are calling them daily keeping a track of their health conditions,” Alle told FPJ.
Being commercial zones, both the wards record a significant floating population daily. The market areas of Dongri, Mumbadevi, Masjid Bunder, and Sandhurst Road remain heavily crowded during the day.
“The large floating population poses a challenge for us so we have identified a few commercial areas, where we have deployed a maximum number of marshals to keep a check on the flouters,” Alle said,
“We are also arranging testing camps at the industrial estates,” he added.
In the C ward, there is a total of 50 buildings whose floors are sealed and only one building that has been sealed entirely. Meanwhile in the B ward, there are only six buildings with sealed floors. Alle said that all the cases are being reported from high-rises as there is no slum area in his ward.
Afreen Shaikh, local Congress corporator of B ward said that now that there is no lock-down, people have started coming to the commercial areas for their occupational needs, contributing to a spike.
“However, the case tally in our ward is still lowest amongst all other wards because the local residents are still abiding by the protocols and senior citizens are not moving out,” Shaikh said.
