Coronavirus in Mumbai: R Central, R South and 6 other wards pose hurdle in BMC’s fight against COVID-19

With infection growth rate increasing and case doubling days declining, six wards in the western suburbs and two in South Mumbai are posing a hurdle in BMC’s fight against coronavirus. Despite implementing 'Mission Zero' in some of these wards, the infection growth rate is high in Dahisar, Borivali, Kandivali, Malad and Goregaon.

The eight wards which show high growth rate of infections and lowest doubling days as compared to other wards in the city include -- R Central (Borivali), R South (Kandivali), R North (Dahisar), P North (Malad), P South (Goregaon), H west (Bandra west, Khar), D ward (Malabar hill, Napeansea road, Grant road) and C ward (Chira bazar, Kalbadevi, Pydhonie, Mumbadevi, Bhuleshwar).

The highest growth rate in the city has been reported in R Central ward (1.46%) followed by H west ward (1.40%), R south (1.21%), R north (1.16 %), C ward (1.09%), D ward (1.05%), P South (1.05%) and P North 0.96%. These wards also have the lowest doubling rate.

At 49 days, R Central (Borivali) has the lowest doubling across all 24 wards. The average doubling rate of Mumbai is 77.

There are a significant number of active cases in North Mumbai and parts of western suburbs. Officials blame it on people, who are not coming forward for testing. Now, D ward and C ward in South Mumbai have joined the bandwagon too.

The share of active coronavirus cases in these eight wards of the city (six wards in western suburbs and two in South Mumbai) continues to increase even though the ward officials imposed strict restrictions on people’s movement. “We had implemented Mission Zero in eight wards in the month of June. While cases in other wards started sliding down, some areas -- Dahisar, Borivali, Kandivali and Goregaon are still recording higher growth rate as compared to other wards of the city," said Iqbal Singh Chahal, BMC commissioner.

As per ward wise data shared by the BMC, the active case in the above eight wards with high growth rate accounts for 39 per cent of total active Covid-19 cases in the city. Of the total 18,019 active cases in the city as on September 3, the share of these eight wards is 7175 cases.

Chahal added, " We are working on a war-footing to contain the spread in these areas showing high growth rate. We are monitoring closely localities/areas from where maximum numbers of cases are being reported, to find out how we can deal with it and contain the spread. As far as other parts of the city is concerned we have managed to bring down the number of cases. The overall average growth rate of the city is 0.90 Percent currently, which is much better than the state and national average."