Covid-19: In one month, active cases come down in Mumbai, western suburbs continue to record high numbers

While the number of Mumbai’s active Covid-19 cases has come down in the last one month, the western suburb of Borivali continues to record the highest number of fresh cases everyday—2,448 on average. According to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data, Borivali has recorded the highest number of active cases since September 13, 2020.

Other western suburbs such as Malad, Kandivali and Andheri too have been recording a higher number of cases and are among the top five areas with the highest number of active Covid-19 cases in Mumbai.

Civic officials attribute the high number of cases to a significant portion of the population that lives in high-rises.

A BMC official said, “Eighty per cent of the cases are coming from high-rises and the trend shows that whichever area has a high ratio of high-rise buildings, the number of active cases is on the higher side.”

The official added, “Several people who live in slums may have developed antibodies, due to which there are no cases there anymore.”

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The sero-surveillance conducted by the BMC in two phases had revealed that the ratio of antibodies in those residing in slums increased significantly whereas that of people residing in non-slum areas increased marginally. This, the BMC has stated, could be one of the reason behind why non-slum areas are recording more cases.

Dr Siddarth Paliwal, a city-based private health consultant said, “There are chances that in the coming days too the trend of cases being reported from non-slum areas or high-rises will remain high, as the ratio of those developing antibodies in slum areas is increasing, which is evident from the results of BMC’s second sero-survey. Eventually, when the level of antibodies increaes in high-rises, the number of cases may reduce. But it depends on how helpful or effective antibodies are in the fight against Covid-19.”

Further, according to the civic body’s data, 10 administrative wards in the city encompassing areas in the western suburbs like Borivali, Kandivali, Malad, Andheri, followed by Mulund, Ghatkopar in the eastern suburbs and Chowpatty, Ghatkopar and Malabar Hill have more than 10,000 Covid-19 cases.

In terms of deaths, wards encompassing areas like Dharavi, Dadar, Mahim, Vikhroli, Ghatkopar, Kurla, Malad, Andheri and Borivali have recorded more than 400. Mumbai has 24 administrative wards.

Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, however, said the situation in the city has improved in the last month despite there being daily case load of between 2,000 to 2,500.

Chahal on Monday said, “Exactly one month ago on September 11, BMC had 26,632 active Covid-19 cases whereas on October 11, the number of active Covid-19 cases fell to 22,369. The average death rate over the last one month has been 2.1%, resulting in a decrease in the overall death rate from 4.9% (as on September 11, 2020) to 4.14% (as on October 11, 2020).”

Chahal added, “The number of vacant Covid-19 beds under BMC which was 4,165 on September 11 (including 85 ICU beds only) has increased to 4,922 on October 11 (including 257 ICU beds).”

Meanwhile, as of Wednesday, Mumbai had 234,602 Covid-19 cases followed by 9,555 deaths.

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