The Union Health Ministry praised the BMC for ensuring a steep decline in the cases in Dharavi. Through a pre-emptive, proactive and graded response policy, the Centre is taking several steps along with the states and Union territories for prevention, containment and management of COVID-19, the ministry said in a statement.
Several states have implemented containment strategies and produced effective outcomes, the Centre mentioned the efforts of the Maharashtra government and the BMC had shown encouraging results.
The magnitude of the pandemic in Asia’s largest slum
The measures also ensured an improved case doubling time to 43 days in May 2020 and 78 days in June 2020, according to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
Dharavi was considered a hotspot in the financial capital with a large number of cases emerging on a daily basis. However, the cases have subsided now.
Dharavi, known as Asia’s largest slum in Mumbai, is very densely populated with 2,27,136 people per square km . The slum has reported 491 cases with a 12 per cent growth rate in April and the doubling period was 18 days. Subsequently, the Brihanmumbai Mahanagar Municipality took swift actions to ensure strict regulations across zones. The growth rate was 4.3 per cent in May and 1.02 percent in June. Due to strict enforcement of the guidelines, the doubling period became 43 days in May and 78 days in June.
Reining the pandemic
In a slum-like Dharavi, the challenges are enormous because 80 per cent of the population depends on community toilets. About 8-10 people live in houses/huts, which are connected by narrow streets with two-three story houses at a distance of 10 by 10 feet.
Not just this, the houses which often have multiple floors also have factories. Therefore, it was a huge challenge to follow home quarantine and also abiding to distance.
In such a situation, BMC implemented 4T Plan - Tracing, Tracking, Testing and Treatment. Proactive screening was conducted with door-to-door doctors and private clinics screening 47,500 people. In fact, 14,970 people in the slum were screened with the help of mobile vans. At the same time, 4,76,775 people were screened by BMC health workers.
The concerned authorities also established fever clinics for high-risk category treatment including elderly and senior citizens. This helped in screening 3.6 lakh people. In this way, 5,48,270 people were investigated in Dharavi. The suspected cases were referred to the Covid Care Centers and Quarantine Centers. Almost 90 per cent of the patients were treated within Dharavi.
Only the critically ill patients were taken out of Dharavi. During this time the BMC distributed food packets of 25,000 rations in Dharavi and also provided food to the dwellers.
The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation buses were operated for facilitating staff conveyance, while the high-risk zone was sealed from all sides and community leaders were appointed as a 'COVID warriors' to address all issues of the community and to act as a bridge between the health workers and the community, it noted.
The authorities were able to control the disease only because of the timely intervention by BMC and Maharashtra government. And today fewer cases are being reported in Dharavi setting a precedent that corrective measures can help in fighting a pandemic of this magnitude.
(With additional information from ABP News Correspondent Praful Srivastava)