On the heels of the state government's 'Mission Begin Again' drive in June, launched to rev up the economy, residential buildings and high-rises across the city have begun to see a spike in corona cases.
The maximum number of cases are now emerging from high-rises and gated communities, while the cases in chawls and slum areas seem to have fallen.
The latest data shared by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) reveals that presently, there are more sealed buildings than slum areas identified as containment zones. The civic body says that there are as many as 6,163 active sealed buildings across the city, while 691 chawl and slum areas have been declared containment zones.
The unlocking phase, in which some lockdown measures were eased, has also resulted in unlocking the virus, which has now travelled to the suburbs. After local trains, offices and businesses have resumed operations, several civic wards have now emerged as new Covid-19 hotspots.
In four wards in north Mumbai, the situation is indeed bad. With 777 sealed buildings, R-central (Borivli) has the highest number, followed by K-east (Andheri east and Jogeshwari east) at 716 and R-south (Kandivli, Charkop) at 557. In P-north (Malad) ward, which presently has the highest number of active cases in the city, there are 513 sealed buildings.
"Since the lockdown norms were relaxed, people began behaving as though the pandemic was over and many of them were seen going outside without masks and protective gear, causing a spike in the number of cases," said Congress corporator Bhushan Patil, R-central ward.
"In areas like Borivli and Kandivli, there are more high-rises than slums. Thus, once there is an infection the virus spreads amongst the society members," Patil said.
"Many societies relaxed their norms and began to allow visitors inside their buildings. Domestic workers employed in these buildings were carriers who had come back from their hometowns and joined work, instead of getting tested. This has caused a severe spread in our building," said Raman Ahuja, representative of a citizens' body in R-south ward (Kandivli).
In R-central, there are only 11 active containment zones in the slum areas, while in K-east, there are 41 zones, in R-south 32 and in P-north, there are 31.
There are less than 100 containment zones in slum areas in each ward and with 75 containment zones in the slum areas, M-east ward (Mankhurd, Govandi, Anushakti Nagar, Cheetah Camp) has the highest number.
"The slum and the chawl areas were sealed as soon as cases began to rise, which helped in containing the spread," says Pratibha Shinde the BJP corporator of P-north ward.
"However, the case of gated societies is different. Though there has been a rise in cases, most of them are asymptomatic and under home quarantine" Shinde pointed out.
"The spread has happened because of basic carelessness. Had people been more aware of their safety, then the scenario wouldn't have been so dire. People need to understand that the virus doesn't discriminate and can infect anyone," said a senior BMC official.
