House-help and vendors bring Covid-19 virus back to Mumbai buildings

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, June 22

Coronavirus, which spread from Mumbai’s high-rises to the city’s slums, is now back infecting more people living in multi-storeyed  buildings than in shanties.

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the number of people testing positive for the virus from high-rises is more in some parts of the city than in slums. Officials say residents of

buildings who were strictly observing the lockdown for the past three months are now easing up and coming out in large numbers. Moreover, many buildings are allowing maids, drivers and other household help to enter the premises.

On Monday the civic body sealed Tahnee Heights, a 28-storeyed building in posh Malabar Hill, after 21 people tested positive for the virus over a week.

“We suspect that the driver employed by one of the residents infected other servants including security personnel employed in the building. Subsequently, two residents were also infected,” says Assistant Municipal Commissioner Prashant Gaikwad in whose ward the building falls.

The authorities sealed the entire building on Monday preventing people from moving in and out of the premises, officials said.

Civic officials say they expect more such cases in the coming days.

”Around 70 per cent of the cases in my ward are among building residents while the rest is from the slums,” says Assistant Municipal Commissioner Bhagyashree Kapse of the R/Central ward in suburban Mumbai.

“Many people who tested positive say they only came out to buy groceries or pick up packages from couriers,” says another civic official.

According to officials, the cases from buildings may go up as many residents who return to their offices and businesses allow maids and other essential workers to access their premises.

With similar statistics coming from officials in the suburbs, the authorities have begun a door-to-door drive to check for cases in the buildings. Health workers are going around in ambulances in the

suburbs to quiz people about fever, breathlessness and other symptoms.