These measures have also improved the time it takes to double cases, said the center (File)
New Delhi:
Center praised Mumbai civic body for “actively” chasing new coronavirus in Dharavi on Sunday, saying proactive measures had reduced infection growth rate in Asia’s largest slum to 1.02% in June against 12% in April.
The Union’s Department of Health also praised the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for ensuring a sharp drop in daily COVID-19 cases in Dharavi from an average of 43 in May to 19 in the third week of June.
Thanks to a preventive, proactive and graduated response policy, the Center is taking several measures with the States and Union territories for the prevention, containment and management of COVID-19, the ministry said in a press release.
In this effort, various guidelines, opinions and treatment protocols have been developed and shared with States to strengthen the collective response to the fight against COVID-19, the statement said.
Noting that several states have implemented these containment strategies and produced effective results, the Center said that the efforts of the government of Maharashtra and the BMC have shown encouraging results.
“As part of these efforts, they actively chased the virus and aggressively conducted targeted searches for COVID suspects,” the ministry said.
“Being densely populated (2,27,136 people / km2), Dharavi recorded 491 cases in April 2020 with a growth rate of 12% and a doubling period of 18 days,” said the press release. “The proactive measures adopted by BMC reduced the growth rate of COVID-19 to 4.3% in May 2020 and to 1.02% in June.”
These measures also improved the time for doubling cases to 43 days in May and 78 days in June, the center said.
The BMC has faced several challenges in Dharavi where 80% of the population depends on community toilets, he said.
About 8-10 people live in households or huts measuring about 10/10 feet, associated with the existence of narrow alleys with two or three storey houses where often the ground floor is a house and others floors are used as factories, the statement said. .
Therefore, there were severe limitations on physical distance without the possibility of effective “ home quarantine ”, he said.
The BMC has adopted an active monitoring model of the four T’s – tracing, monitoring, testing and treatment, the ministry said.
This approach included activities such as proactive screening and while 47,500 people were covered by doctors and private clinics as part of home screening, about 14,970 people were screened using mobile vans and 4,776 775 were interviewed by BMC health workers.
“Fever control clinics have been set up to screen high-risk categories such as the elderly / elderly. This has made it possible to screen 3.6 lakh people. Separated from the other community to effectively limit the transmission of the disease, “said the ministry.
