For the first time since July 19, Mumbai's Dharavi recorded a high number of positive cases on Friday.
Dharavi recorded 11 cases on Thursday, followed by 33 positive cases on Friday and 18 cases on Saturday. This comes after the slum pocket consistently registered cases in single digits for two months.
However, civic officials and local public representatives assured Mumbaikars that there's no need to panic as of now. "A spike cannot be declared in one day. We need to monitor the numbers for the next few days. Only then we would be able to say that if there is any spike," Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner and ward officer of G north, told the Free Press Journal.
The ward official explained, often multiple cases emerge after a group of people who were living together in a family or working closely in an office gets tested. A civic health official also added, of the 33 cases, some were recorded earlier in the week, but were only officially registered on Friday.
Meanwhile, Dharavi's neighbouring areas Dadar and Mahim have recorded a sudden surge in the cases since the last month. The areas that comparatively reported a lower number of cases amidst the lockdown have reported, on an average, 34 and 33 cases daily in September so far.
While Dadar reported 404 cases this month, Mahim reported 396 cases. Meanwhile, Dharavi recorded only 126 cases this month. "The market areas of Dadar and Mahim are completely functional now, so people are coming here from different parts of the city in full force. This is causing a rise in the numbers, as distancing policies are hardly maintained," stated Dighavkar.
"However, there's no need to panic, as most of the cases are being traced and close contacts are being isolated. Also, more tests are being conducted now, which is helping us to act in a proactive manner," he added.
