Aug 19, 20212 min read

India Coronavirus Dispatch: Mumbai now has zero containment zones

With a steady decline in Covid-19 cases, Mumbai now has zero containment zones. The last two slum areas, which were under containment in the K-East ward covering areas like Andheri East, Marol, Sakinaka, were removed from the tag on Friday.

Containment zones are areas that have high population density and are sealed to prevent the further spread of the infection.

With a sharp slide in daily cases, civic officials said the numbers of containment zones and sealed floors and buildings have also decreased in the city. On April 17, when the city was going through the second wave of the pandemic, there were 100 containment zones and 1,188 sealed buildings in Mumbai.

As of Sunday, there are 26 sealed buildings or micro-containment zones — the lowest since the outbreak of the pandemic last year, 1,215 sealed floors and fewer than 3,000 active cases. Till last month, there were 60 sealed buildings and 5,000 active cases.

On Sunday, 267 new Covid cases were recorded and four deaths were reported. A steady decline was recorded in the number of daily cases since July. According to the data from BMC, there are 2,879 active cases in the city. The daily average of cases from each of the 24 wards has dropped to below 10.

Out of the 2,879 active cases, 720 are asymptomatic, 1,706 are symptomatic and 453 are critical. Meanwhile, 68,156 citizens across the city are quarantined in their homes.

“The number of daily cases is going down. However, all ward officers have been told to increase contact tracing. As most things are open in the city, there is a high risk of the virus spreading. The ward officers have also been directed to ramp up daily testing,” said a senior BMC official. In the last 24 hours, 3,006 high-risk contacts of Covid-19 patients were traced.