Coronavirus Hotspots: Mumbai remains worst-hit city across the country as the tally breached 1,500 mark, including 101 deaths reported so far. To arrest the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has identified nearly 400 containment zone in the city. Worli is one of the epicenter of coronavirus in the city with around 20% of total cases in Mumbai. Following which the authorities have declared Worli Koliwada, another slum as Covid-19 containment zone and the movement of people have been restricted in the area.
Mumbai's slums have emerged as hotbeds for Covid-19, and is adding to the rising cases of infections in the city. The BMC officials have attributed the rise to aggressive testing in slums like Worli Koliwada, BDD chawl and Jijamata Nagar areas. According to The Hindu, BMC has planned to roll out the anti-malarial drug, hydroxychloroquine in Worli Koliwada as well as in Dharavi as prophylaxis — a treatment course administered to prevent a disease — for the community.
Speaking with The Hindu, Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said that medical experts from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and NITI Aayog had given a green signal for the pilot. “We have 10 lakh tablets available. We are prepared to start the pilot in a day or two,” Kakani said.
Meanwhile, MLA of Worli constituency, Aaditya Thackeray released a video address amid coronavirus crisis in his constituency.
“I am sorry for the inconvenience this has caused," he said in Marathi. “I hear of a shortage of milk and vegetables still and we are working to fix that. But we will have to put up with it for now because this is a question of our lives. We need to prevent a repeat of what we see happening in the US, Spain or Italy. The only way to do this is to stay indoors."
Meanwhile, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray extended the lockdown till April 30 taking into account the severity of the matter in the state and especially Mumbai where the count has now crossed 1,500.
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