BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation's P North ward (Malad) has witnessed a marked reduction in the number of COVID-19 cases reported daily. Meanwhile, its recovered cases have also gone up drastically. In just one month, the number of active cases the ward declined by 32.04 per cent, reveals the civic body's ward-wise data.
Part of Malad, especially its slum pockets, have been witnessing a surge in cases post Unlock 1.0. The spike was such that Mumbai Police had to impose a full lockdown in several areas, literally blocking the movement of people and barricading roads. The result of this action is now evident in the COVID-19 cases showing a downward trend.
The ward has the highest population in Mumbai, with around 10 lakh people spread over areas such as Malvani, MHADA compound and Marve Road in the west as well as Kurar village, Pathanwadi, Dutt Mandir road and Pushpa Park in the east, amongst other areas.
Until May, P North ward was lauded for being able to keep the virus at bay despite having one of the city’s largest slums --Malvani. However, by the end of May, the situation started spinning out of control and the number of cases grew exponentially.
On July 11, the ward had a total 2,044 active cases (highest across the city) out of the total 5,695 cumulative cases, including 223 deaths. However, the number of active cases in Malad has dipped to 655 as on August 11 of the total 7,454 cumulative cases, including 329 fatalities.
"The situation in the entire northwest region belt was quite grim a month ago. However, door to door screening and aggressive testing protocol under our Mission Zero campaign turned the scenario. Things started changing, the situation in P north and other wards in the northwest belt started showing improvement and growth rate has started declining,” Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner of BMC. However, with 7,545 cumulative cases, P North remains the second worst affected ward in the city.
