Since April 25, when the number of cases in K (East) ward comprising eastern parts of Jogeshwari, Andheri, Vile Parle among others were 265, in twelve days, till May 7, the cases have shot up by a staggering 82 percent - to 482.
Most new cases are in densely populated chawls. The ward is seeing an addition of 131 new containment zones since April 25 – the last day that the civic body provided a ward-wise positive cases data. Total number of containment zones now in K-East stand at 172 as 41 zones have been de-contained with their containment period coming to an end.
Areas seeing new cases are Marol Pipeline, chawls in Jogeshwari East, JB Nagar, Koldongari and Vile Parle east. Police personnel have also turned positive in the ward, hence some recently contained areas being Police office quarters near Andheri bus depot, Marol police camp, Marol police colony and the Marol training centre near it.
Jagadish Amin, local councilor of Marol pipeline area said, “I have been running around all day since past 44 days. I feel I will get ill myself,” says Amin, catching for breath while he speaks. Of cases in his ward, he says 20 are positive cases of a five-star hotel whose staff tested positive.
Areas near Sahar international airport such as Shastri Nagar are also seeing new cases. These are people who work at the airport in various capacities, such as in its cargo department. Some are CISF jawans who worked at the airport. They live in quarters inside the airport and the quarters had been sealed. In Sahar police station, 14 police have tested positive and are under quarantine. They had bought mangoes from a mango vendor who was positive.
Assistant Municipal Commissioner of the ward Prashant Sapkale said the reason for growth in figures is good contact tracing of those tested positive. The ward is also following strategies like 72-hour continuous lockdowns in targeted areas such crowded Mograpada falling between Andheri and Jogeshwari and in some areas such as Shastri Nagar near the airport – a 10-day-lockdown to break the chain, he said.
Parag Alavani, MLA under whose constituency Marol Pipeline area comes, says the civic body started screening contact cases late in the densely populated area with around 80,000 hutments – the reason for the rapid rise in cases.
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