Amid the rise in COVID-19 cases across the city, three municipal wards have recorded a 30 per cent spike in the daily active case tally.
As per the latest Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data, between March 17 and 18, the K West (KW) ward which covers the Andheri West, Versova, Juhu areas has recorded 472 cases, the H West (HW) ward which covers the Bandra west and Khar areas have covered 225 cases and the M West (MW) ward which covers the Chembur and Tilak Nagar areas in the Eastern suburbs have reported 206 cases.
At present, these three wards have the highest active case tally and infection rate in Mumbai. The data also revealed that each of the three wards had been reporting 40-60 cases each day till last week, however since the past two days, the daily case figures have also doubled.
Senior civic officials have said that in order to bring down the infection rate, stricter policies will be implemented in these wards.
Civic health officials said that in the past one week considering the steep rise in the number of cases, the BMC has reactivated a number of COVID-19 isolation facilities, which it had discontinued earlier as the cases across the city started to decline post October, 2020.
"We have become more vigilant and have deployed more marshals in open spaces like promenade, gardens and playgrounds, we are also looking at options to control the crowding at market places," said Vinayak Vispute, assistant municipal commissioner and incharge of HW ward.
"Even though the daily case tally is high, more than 80 per cent of the active cases are presently asymptomatic," Vispute added. Officials of K West (KW) have said that from Saturday onwards they will become overtly vigilant to tackle the regular crowd at Juhu and Versova beaches.
"At least 500 people come regularly to the beaches during morning and more people come in the afternoon, we are taking necessary precautions to control them. People also need to be careful," the official added. He mentioned that K West is a large ward and in comparison with demography and population density, the number of symptomatic patients is really low.
Civic officials of the MW ward have blamed the Mumbaikars behind the rise in the number of cases. A senior health official has said post January activities related to social gatherings have increased rapidly.
"In the past one month we have conducted raids and have penalised more than 20 enterprises like hotels and banquet halls for flouting COVID-19 norms," said the official. "People had started taking the numbers lightly at first however we have again started a strict crackdown, like how we were doing when the pandemic was at its peak last year," the official added.
