Asia's Largest Slum Dharavi Gets Rid Of COVID Menace As Active Cases Touch 'Zero' Since Pandemic Outbreak

For the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19, the tally of active, positive cases in Asia's largest slum, Dharavi, touched zero on March 24, even as the high-density population centre reported no new infections and fatalities on the day.

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the slum has recorded 8,233 cases and 419 deaths to date.

Dharavi is a part of the G North civic ward of the BMC and shares its border with Dadar and Mahim areas.

While Mahim has witnessed 14,310 recoveries and 265 deaths, Dadar has recorded 13,243 recoveries and 306 fatalities so far.

While Dharavi has no active positive cases, both Dadar and Mahim have one active case each.

Kiran Dighavkar, the assistant municipal commissioner of G North, said that this is the first time Dharavi has reported zero active and fresh cases since the pandemic outbreak, The New Indian Express reported.

Zero Day For Dharavi

"It is a zero, zero and zero day for us. It has happened due to the hard work of officials and residents. It was a huge challenge for us to control the virus but we succeeded in it. We also carried out aggressive vaccination drives in the area," Dhighavkar stated.

Dharavi has an estimated population of seven lakh people living in a small area of 2.1 sq km. There are around 5,000 small business and industrial units in the area. The first COVID-19 case was reported in the slum on April 1, 2020 and was a hotspot of infections. However, the local administration effectively managed to control it.

Many people lauded the efforts of BMC to control the spread of the virus.

Dighavkar not only activated local administration to contain the virus but engaged celebrities and corporates to extend financial aid through CSR to distribute medicines and food in the area.

On Thursday, March 24, Maharashtra reported 139 new COVID-19 cases and three new deaths, while 255 more patients got discharged, bringing the active cases below 1,000, the state's health department said.

With this, the tally of COVID-19 infections in the state increased to 78,72,956, while the death toll rose to 1,43,772, a heath department bulletin said.

On Wednesday, March 23, the state had logged 149 coronavirus cases and two deaths.

The Kolhapur administrative circle, which includes Kolhapur, Ratnagiri Sangli and Sindhudurg districts, did not report any new COVID infection.

Overall, 24 districts and 15 municipal corporations did not report any fresh COVID cases in the last 24 hours.

Active Cases In Mumbai Below 1000

Mumbai reported the highest number of cases among all the cities in Maharashtra at 54. Significantly, the state's active cases decreased below the 1,000-mark.

According to the department, the number of recovered patients in Maharashtra rose to 77,24,214 after 255 people were discharged during the day, leaving the state with 965 active cases.

The COVID-19 fatality rate in Maharashtra was 1.82 per cent, while the recovery rate stood at 98.11 per cent.

With 45,466 new COVID tests conducted in the last 24 hours, the number of swab samples tested so far in the state -increased to 7,91,13,785.

Maharashtra's positivity rate, or cases detected per 100 patients, was 0.003 per cent.

The Mumbai circle, which includes most parts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, recorded 72 new cases, followed by Pune (34), Nashik (15), Akola (6), Latur (6), Nagpur (3) and the Aurangabad circle (3).

At three, only the Pune circle reported fresh fatalities of the eight circles.

COVID-19 figures of Maharashtra are as follows: Positive cases 78,72,956; new cases 139; deaths 1,43,772; recoveries 77,24,214; active cases 965, total tests 7,91,13,785.

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