Mumbai: With four positive Covid-19 cases being recorded in three different slums in the city earlier this week, the BMC has been forced to shift its attention from high-rises to Mumbai’s heaving slums, where thousands live cheek by jowl. Ward-level teams are now rushing to slums that were considered as low-risk areas thus far and have begun cluster screening of contacts.
According to BMC officials, the four people that tested positive for coronavirus in slums include a 65- year-old resident of Parel, a 37-year-old resident of Jamblipada slums in Kalina, as well as a 25-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman who was working as a housemaid, both residents of a slum in Ghatkopar.
According to BMC officials, the 65-year-old woman from Parel, who tested positive, ran a canteen in Prabhadevi and served many people working in corporate offices in the area. This has made contact tracing in her case a herculean task. The 37-year-old resident of Jamblipada slum worked as a waiter in Italy.
He tested positive after he returned. Jamblipada is a settlement of not less than 800 tenements using common toilets, which are very few. The civic body, which had no back-up plan till date for slums, was concentrating on awareness drives and conducted tests of residents in non-slum areas who had returned from affected foreign countries.
However, following the positive cases that have been reported from dense slum settlements, the BMC has now diverted its attention to the city’s slums as well. The civic body is sanitising not just affected pockets but aims at covering all slums by spraying disinfectants.
Mumbai"Apart from the cluster screening that has been initiated in affected slum areas, we have also started sanitising the slums in all 24 wards. The entire slum sanitising process is a two-fold programme. As a first step, we are carrying out 'point sanitisation', which includes house-to-house sanitization.
This is followed by 'area sanitisation', wherein we spray disinfectants around the other areas of the slum," Additional Municipal Commissioner of BMC, Suresh Kakani, told The Free Press Journal.
The Mumbai fire Brigade has confirmed that it currently holds a stock of around 11,080 litres of sodium hypochlorite (bleach), which will increase to over 5,54,000 litres when mixed with water to turn it into disinfectant.
There will be no shortage despite the increase in the disinfecting process as we have kept the procurement open," added Kakani.
According to BMC officials, over 27,000 homes, including shanties and huts, have been sprayed with disinfectants till March 23. The civic body has simultaneously carried out fogging at around 1400 non-slum housing societies with over 17,000 flats.
During the cluster screening, the civic body identified around 10 people who were in close contact with the four people who were tested positive.
"All 10 contacts were admitted to Kasturba hospital immediately after they were identified; the result of only one person is pending, and the remaining nine have tested negative and have been discharged.
