Mumbai: Tilak Nagar, Mulund see spurt in cases as residents flout Covid protocols – Times of India

MUMBAI: Nine of the city’s 24 civic wards are registering a higher growth rate of Covid-19 cases than the city’s average. While Covid-19 cases in Mumbai grew 0.13% over the past one week, five wards from the eastern suburbs, three from western and one from central Mumbai recorded a growth rate of 0.14% to 0.21%. Importantly, cases are mainly from non-slum areas.
Areas reporting most cases from central suburbs include Tilak Nagar, Mulund, Nehru Nagar in Kurla, Ghatkopar, Vikhroli and Bhandup. In the western suburbs, more cases are being reported from Bandra, Khar, Andheri and Jogeshwari (East). The only ward showing a higher growth rate from central Mumbai is F-North (0.15%) that includes Matunga and Dharavi. Civic officials said the spurt in cases couldn’t be linked to local train access to all as people were already commuting by buses and other modes.

In M-West Ward that covers Chembur and Tilak Nagar and currently has the highest growth rate at 0.21%, average detections have doubled from 15-20 cases daily till last week. Dr Bhupendra Patil, medical officer of health (MOH), said 98% cases are from highrises in Tilak Nagar, Subhash Nagar, Sindhi Society and Bhakti Park. “In several cases, people have wasted 4-5 days to get tested, by which time the family members got infected too,” he said, adding they have intensified contact tracing.
Microanalysis of rising cases points towards non-adherence to Covid protocols, said civic officials. At L Ward (Kurla), which has the third highest growth rate (0.17%), there has been an around 3% jump in daily detections since last month. Between February 2 and 9, the ward has seen 141 new cases. Medical officer Dr Jeetendra Jadhav said their ward-level analysis has traced 80% cases to highrises where patients had a history of commuting. Nehru Nagar is a hotspot. “We have also found violations of containment rules.”
Assistant commissioner Kishore Gandhi from T Ward, which has seen a high growth rate, said most cases are being reported from Mulund highrises. He, though, said daily addition of 20-30 cases was not as drastic as 50-60 in October and November. Yet, this ward has the second highest sealed floors at 198 after K-West. K-West that includes Andheri (West) recorded the highest addition of cases last week at 238. A civic official said, “What we are seeing is most cases are mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic.” Jadhav said many are detected prior to medical procedures when a test is carried out.