Amid the heavy rise in the number of cases in Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday said that vaccinating the residents of Dharavi is now a top priority of the civic body.
In the past week, Dharavi recorded a spike in the number of cases. Once a COVID-19 hotspot, Dharavi had been reporting cases in single-digit on most days since last December. However, in the past seven days (March 9-15) Dharavi has reported 77 cases.
Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner and in-charge of public health in BMC, has said that by end of this week, the civic body will be setting up help centers and assistant booths to help the residents of Dharavi for getting vaccinated.
“Most of those residing in the slums are apprehensive about getting the jab. We will reach out to each and every individual and counsel them regarding the importance of vaccines,” Kakani told FPJ.
He also mentioned that volunteers deployed in the booths will help the beneficiaries in the process of online registration.
“Although there has been a spike in a number of cases, the situation is not under control, which is why we are planning to vaccinate maximum people at the earliest before things get worse like last year,” Kakani added.
Kakani also pointed out that the civic body has signed an MoU with an NGO - Bharatiya Jain Sangathan for carrying out the awareness drive in the slum belt of Dharavi.
“We have worked with this particular NGO last year during contact tracing when the pandemic was at its peak,” Kakani said.
Meanwhile, civic officials in-charge of Dharavi have pointed out that even though the daily case tally has risen, the cases are mostly scattered in Mumbai.
“There are no cluster cases till now, the cases are reported in a scattered manner in a multiple numbers of areas,” said Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner and in-charge of G North ward, which covers the Dharavi area.
“We have already ramped up our daily testing numbers and have been conducting RT PCR camps and regularly at multiple locations in our ward,” Dighavkar added.
