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Mumbai: Covid hotspot M West ward sees dip in cases, best contract-tracing ratio in city

According to data released by the BMC, the ward has a growth rate of 1.11 per cent, a doubling rate of 60 days and a contract-tracing ratio of 1:10 — the best in Mumbai. In the last seven days, the ward has reported 207 fresh cases and three deaths, officials said.

mumbai coronavirus news update, mumbai covid cases, mumbai covid cases toll, bmc, mumbaim m west ward covid cases, indian express news The M West ward recorded the first coronavirus-related death on March 17, which was also the first fatality due to the virus in the city. (Representational)

Among the top five wards with a lion’s share of Covid-19 cases till May, Mumbai’s M West ward, spread over Chembur and Mahul, in June witnessed a rapid drop in cases after an aggressive contact-tracing exercise was carried out by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The ward, which has 76 per cent of its population living in slums, now ranks 18th among the 24 administrative wards in the city in caseload with a total of 2,310 cases recorded till June 30.

Its mortality rate, however, continues to remain high — 8.78 per cent — with 203 deaths reported due to the virus till Tuesday. This is slightly lower from the 10 per cent fatality rate registered a few weeks ago, civic officials said.

According to data released by the BMC, the ward has a growth rate of 1.11 per cent, a doubling rate of 60 days and a contract-tracing ratio of 1:10 — the best in Mumbai. In the last seven days, the ward has reported 207 fresh cases and three deaths, officials said.

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The M West ward recorded the first coronavirus-related death on March 17, which was also the first fatality due to the virus in the city. “Since then the virus spread rapidly in the slums, especially due to the common public toilets and high population density. As it was the early stage of the Covid-19 outbreak, very little information on preventive measures was available. This was a major reason for the high death rate in the ward. Also, most of the people living in the slums had comorbid conditions,” an official from the ward said.

According to officials, slum pockets, including P L Lokhande Marg, Thakkar Bappa Marg, Ghatla Village, Khardev Nagar and Lal Dongar, registered the maximum number of cases. “But soon we started tracing more and more contacts of positive patients. Also, we installed additional mobile toilets in slums and distributed hand sanitiser,” an official from the ward said. In Chembur, 90 mobile toilets were installed at 11 locations, mostly slums, to ease the burden on public toilets. Along with this, 110 hand sanitiser units were installed near public toilets.

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A dedicated 250-bed special Covid-19 hospital was also set up to provide immediate care to patients. The containment zones in the ward have come down from 21 to 11 in June, officials said.

Assistant Municipal Commissioner of M West ward, Dr Prithiviraj Chouhan, said early detection, immediate isolation and maximum contact tracing had proved key in controlling the pandemic in the ward. “We have traced 26,063 high-risk contacts, which is second highest among all the wards. With extensive testing, we have also put 5,247 people in quarantine centres. Our health team focused on suspected and symptomatic patients, and those showing influenza-like symptoms. All were moved to Covid Care Centres and tested and treated,” Chouhan said.

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Chembur is now gradually witnessing a dip in cases, he said, adding, “On May 30, we found 53 new cases, while on June 30 there were only nine new cases, which is the lowest in last one month.”

First uploaded on: 02-07-2020 at 02:54 IST
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