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DPA
NEW DELHI
AUTHORITIES in Mumbai were concerned on Thursday over the possible spread of the new coronavirus in the densely populated slum of Dharavi after a man with Covid-19 died and a municipal corporation worker tested positive.
The 56-year-old man who died Wednesday night was the first to test positive from the sprawling shanty town in India’s financial capital.
An estimated 70,000 to 1 million people live cheek to jowl in Dharavi - a roughly 5-square-kilometre maze of narrow lanes, ramshackle buildings, shanties and open sewers.
The patient had no travel history and was admitted to a local hospital with fever on Sunday and tested positive for the new coronavirus on Wednesday, an official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.
Seven other residents of his house have been home quarantined and are being tested. “We will provide them food and water till their test results come back,” the official said.
The second person who tested positive Thursday was a 52-year-old BMC sanitization worker posted in Dharavi.
The man was admitted to an isolation ward. His family members and about two dozen colleagues have been asked to home quarantine, the BMC official said.
Public health experts say it would be difficult to contain the virus if it spread in a slum like Dharavi where eight to 10 people often share a room.
The population density is about 270,000 per square kilometre making social distancing almost impossible. Water sources and sanitation facilities are shared by scores of people.
NEW DELHI
AUTHORITIES in Mumbai were concerned on Thursday over the possible spread of the new coronavirus in the densely populated slum of Dharavi after a man with Covid-19 died and a municipal corporation worker tested positive.
The 56-year-old man who died Wednesday night was the first to test positive from the sprawling shanty town in India’s financial capital.
An estimated 70,000 to 1 million people live cheek to jowl in Dharavi - a roughly 5-square-kilometre maze of narrow lanes, ramshackle buildings, shanties and open sewers.
The patient had no travel history and was admitted to a local hospital with fever on Sunday and tested positive for the new coronavirus on Wednesday, an official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.
Seven other residents of his house have been home quarantined and are being tested. “We will provide them food and water till their test results come back,” the official said.
The second person who tested positive Thursday was a 52-year-old BMC sanitization worker posted in Dharavi.
The man was admitted to an isolation ward. His family members and about two dozen colleagues have been asked to home quarantine, the BMC official said.
Public health experts say it would be difficult to contain the virus if it spread in a slum like Dharavi where eight to 10 people often share a room.
The population density is about 270,000 per square kilometre making social distancing almost impossible. Water sources and sanitation facilities are shared by scores of people.
