Mumbai: The H-West ward of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is one such ward which has a 50-50 ratio of slums and residential societies in the west side of Santacruz, Khar and Bandra.
This ward, which had been doing quite well until the first few weeks of lockdown considering the spread of Coronavirus, has seen a spurt of COVID-19 positive cases in the last fortnight, mostly in the slums.
With over 291 positive cases recorded till May 12, it has managed to keep itself away from the top 10 list, which has over 64 containment zones for a total of 4.84 lakh population.
A civic official from the H west ward told The Free Press Journal that this ward, which would report 10-15 cases on an average daily, saw a sudden spurt in the last week, most of them traced to slum pockets.
With the increasing number of cases reported in the slums, the police and civic authorities have been directed to turn those areas into containment zones to stop the spread of the pandemic in the initial stages itself. “We are reconsidering the parameters of containment zones and are taking preventive measures to ensure the measures are followed through.
Moreover, we are redesigning the plans with medical check-up point of view and deploying police personnel, surveillance officials accordingly,” said Vinayak Vispute, Assistant Commissioner H-west Ward. An official said, of the total 291 cases reported, 88 patients have been discharged after testing negative for Coronavirus.
Asif Zakaria, an Indian National Congress corporator from Bandra (W) said, “Since the population is high in the containment areas, where a family of six or seven is crammed in small spaces, the scope for social distancing is challenging and it becomes difficult to ask the citizens not to step out in this scorching heat. The entry-exit points have been sealed and more or less the citizens are cooperating with the authorities.”
