Doorstep screening begins, Dharavi cordoned off

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, April 11

Dharavi, Asia’s biggest slum, has been cordoned off and the administration has started door-to-door screening of around eight lakh residents. So far, four persons from Dharavi have died of Covid.

Officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (MC) said teams of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers had begun carrying out thermal screening of the residents. The entire slum, spread over 2.1 km, has been divided into multiple zones. Sources said multiple rounds of screening would be held in the slum cluster over the next 10 days.

“The public toilets used by the residents are being cleaned multiple times in a day using high pressure jet sprays by the Mumbai Fire Brigade,” said Praveen Pardeshi, Mumbai municipal commissioner.

According to the data made available by the authorities, 28 persons from Dharavi tested positive for Covid-19 till Friday. The death toll has gone up to four, with an 80-year-old woman succumbing to the virus at Kasturba Hospital today, officials said.

With shacks as tiny as 100 square feet housing eight to 10 persons, the administration has requisitioned the premises belonging to the National Sports Club of India in Mumbai’s Worli to quarantine those awaiting their test results, officials said.

“The NSCI Dome being transformed into a huge quarantine centre as we step up our contact tracing and testing ….. Ensuring that carriers are isolated for their own safety and for that of others,” Aditya

Thackeray, Tourism and Environment Minister, said on Twitter. So far, 300 beds have been arranged at the NSCI complex and it is likely to be increased if the need be, the sources said. Health Minister Rajesh Tope said the state government had deployed drones to spray disinfectants in Dharavi.

Depends on us: CM

The Maharashtra Government has announced extension of lockdown across the state at least till April 30 even as half the districts in the state are set to be declared free of the Covid-19 virus. CM Uddhav Thackeray said, “If we don’t bring discipline and continue to roam around, we will have to extend it again. It all depends on us now.”