94 new cases in Dharavi, highest one-day spike

Meanwhile, Mahim reported 16 new cases Sunday, including two deaths. Besides, four new cases and one death were reported in Dadar, taking the cases tally to 50 from the area.

Dharavi is one of the worst-affected areas in the city. BMC officials said maintaining social distancing in congested slums was difficult.

Following the inter-ministerial central team’s suggestion to ramp up the number of quarantine beds for Dharavi and increase the number of people screened from the area, the civic body has started door-to-door screening of slums.

Volunteers with thermometer guns have been screening the area and those suffering from fever are being referred to fever clinic. In Dharavi, volunteers have screened 79,000 people. “We are doing it as part of a strategy to trace maximum positive cases. Last week, we scanned around 25,000 people,” said Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner G-North ward. Around 350 private medical practitioners are working in Dharavi.

The BMC is also shifting high-risk contacts and neighbours of positive patients to quarantine centres to ensure they don’t pose a risk to others. In the last one week, 1,920 contacts have been shifted to institutional quarantine facility. As of Saturday, 2,050 people have been admitted in the four institutional quarantine facilities.