Mumbai: The wards which have a high-density population and covers some of the city’s most affluent areas have become the wards with the highest Covid-19 growth rate and lowest rate of doubling in the city.
Of all the 24 wards of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the D and R Central (RC) wards are leading with a growth of 1.5 per cent each.
D ward covers the affluent areas of Grant Road, Walkeshwar, Breach Candy and Malabar Hills. The growth rate of the ward is 1.5 per cent and the doubling rate stands at 45 days, which is the lowest in the city. This ward has so far reported 4,423 cases with 934 active cases.
D ward has reported 449 cases in the last one week, of which more than 90 per cent were reported from highrises and residential towers of the posh localities.
A BMC health official from D ward told that most of the new cases are the getting infected by the asymptomatic patients who were close contacts of previously infected patients.
"Out of all the freshly reported cases, 95 per cent of the cases are coming out from high rises and residential towers. Many of the societies violated lockdown norms and allowed outsiders inside the buildings due to which both the domestic help and their employers have turned out to be carriers of the virus," stated Harshad Kale, Deputy Municipal Commissioner (zone 1).
"Also people have now become more proactive as they are getting their tests done when they sense any symptoms, this is helping us in the process of contact tracing very much," stated Kale.
Meanwhile, Mumbai's R central (C) ward which covers the Borivli area in north Mumbai's suburban belt has become the new COVID-19 hotspot in the city. This ward has as many as 723 buildings sealed, which is the highest in the city. RC ward has 1,241 active cases and total 5,532 cases.
Borivli has comparatively more people living in buildings than slums. Both the east and western sides of Borivli have densely populated residential apartments and housing societies.
RC ward officer Bhagyashree Kapse told FPJ that people have been violating lockdown norms, which has led to the spike in the number of cases.
"Most of the high-risk contacts have been on streets and on the society premises despite knowing that they can be potential carriers of the virus, which is why there have been widespread infections," she stated.
Also, she highlighted that more than 700 buildings have been sealed in her area and 98 per cent of the cases are being reported from high rises.
The growth rate of RC ward is 1.5 per cent and the doubling rate stands at 47 days.
"Cases will fall because most of these patients are asymptomatic and will recover soon. Also to contain the spread, BMC has now taken to sealing entire building premises and stringent lockdown policies are also being applied" stated the ward officer.
