Warriors Fighting the Dharavi Battle
Mumbai’s overloaded public health personnel are up against the clock to mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 in the battleground Dharavi.
A team of 5 members including, medical officer (MO) Dr. Tejaswi Kakade, assistant medical officer (AMO) Dr. Nazish Shaikh, a sanitary inspector (SI) and 2 community health volunteers (CHV) equipped with just a pen, a notebook, a questionnaire, and a stoic commitment, became the frontrunners in containing any probable transmission the moment Dharavi registered its first mortality due to coronavirus. The team reached the person’s house via one of the congested lanes off the 60-ft road in the evening and started jotting down details regarding his travel history and his family members.
Later, two teams of 50 officials and volunteers promptly reached the area to spread the word regarding SARS-Cov-2, the virus behind the worldwide pandemic, and to isolate 70 high-risk people of an eight-block Slum Rehabilitation Authority complex wherein the affected stayed. The area also consists of 91 shops and each of them has been instructed to close, including those distributing essentials. The following day, further 2, 500 people were home-isolated, and will now be examined for COVID-19 infection.
Mumbai’s municipal authority — the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), got a special strategy in its stash for Dharavi. It has formed two teams of 25 persons each that work 24*7 in two shifts. These teams incorporate a SI, MOs, police personnel and CHVs. Moreover, the ward officer has got 800 CHVs aboard whose main role will be to track liable individuals such as expecting females, elderly and patients having respiratory disorders.
That being said, the major concern for health officials is the lack of cooperation by the slum dwellers. Kiran Dighavkar, assistant commissioner, BMC, said that the residents of slum areas didn’t cooperate. Whatever stated by the deceased’s wife and children have left them in confusion. They are not even sure whether the person had visited his shop amidst the lockdown. Has he strolled around the slum, despite having symptoms? The family couldn’t confirm this activity, and the officials are yet to know the number of people he might have infected.
Universal testing is the only solution to address the situation in Dharavi. However, it is not feasible, comments the BMC. The city’s health officials have overturned the possibility of performing universal tests in Dharavi. They have underlined insufficient test kits and scarcity of sanitizers and masks in the slum area as the reasons behind it, hence, with the aid of philanthropists and NGOs, they are striving to acquire protective masks for isolated people.
One of the health officials further indicated high-level ignorance as another concern in Dharavi. He said that while the volunteers were counselling about the importance of social distancing and proper sanitation, many belonging to the Muslim community strongly responded that their immunity is optimum as they consume meat. One resident was booked on April 3 for assaulting BMC personnel who had visited Dharavi to seal off a building.
In the meantime, the virus seems to have established itself in Dharavi. A 52-year old male who is a sweeper in the BMC has been diagnosed with coronavirus. He has no overseas traveling history, yet resides in Jijamata Nagar in Worli and works in Dharavi. Both the areas have witnessed mortalities due to COVID-19 recently. Above all, the person had no interaction with the 56-year-old who died because of the infection in Dharavi. So, if his disease emanated from Dharavi, there is certainly another confirmed case in the slum area waiting to be detected.
Looking at the limited history of the transmission of COVID-19 around the world, the odds are high that Dharavi is the COVID-19 hotspot in India.
