{"id":13625,"date":"2020-05-03T21:27:48","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T01:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/?p=13625"},"modified":"2020-05-18T12:55:35","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T16:55:35","slug":"mission-dharavi-virus-battleground-in-indias-biggest-slum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/mission-dharavi-virus-battleground-in-indias-biggest-slum\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Mission Dharavi’: Virus battleground in India’s biggest slum"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The 125,000 slum-dwellers living under a lockdown so strict that drones monitor their moves and alert police if they attempt to leave home are at the heart of India’s push to contain coronavirus.<\/p>\n

But with only a handful of people tested so far in the country’s biggest slum, fears are growing that “Mission Dharavi” — a term coined by officials working there — may not prevent the virus from raging across the densely packed neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

Dharavi is home to an estimated one million people, who eke out a living as factory workers or maids and chauffeurs to the financial capital Mumbai’s well-heeled residents. Around an eighth of them live in hotspots where severe containment measures are being enforced.<\/p>\n

Its narrow alleys, crowded housing and poor sanitation offer the perfect breeding ground for the virus.<\/p>\n

“The biggest challenge is Dharavi itself… 10 to 15 people stay in one room. How is it possible to enforce social distancing?” asked city official Kiran Dighavkar.<\/p>\n

He is overseeing an effort involving some 2,500 people, including medical workers, cleaners and volunteers, who are fighting to keep cases — at nearly 200, with 12 deaths — from spiralling out of control and overwhelming hospitals.<\/p>\n

The severe lockdown imposed in five virus hotspots in the slum since the first cases were reported in early April is a key part of that undertaking.<\/p>\n

“No-one is allowed to go in or out,” Dighavkar told AFP, adding that “everything, including grocery shops, is shut”.<\/p>\n

“Police are using drones to make sure people obey the rules,” he said.<\/p>\n

A state-run school, a sports complex and a formerly defunct hospital are being used to house patients and as quarantine facilities.<\/p>\n

Around 40,000 people have undergone thermal screening over the past week at so-called fever camps.<\/p>\n

And Dharavi’s 225 public toilets — a lifeline for its residents — are disinfected daily, he said.<\/p>\n

– ‘In a panic’ –<\/p>\n

Mumbai is even considering handing out hydroxychloroquine — an anti-malarial drug touted by US President Donald Trump — “as a preventive measure” to Dharavi residents in quarantine facilities, said Daksha Shah, a senior health official with the city authority.<\/p>\n

“Right now the community is in a panic… so we have to be a bit careful,” she told AFP, adding that they were awaiting approval from New Delhi.<\/p>\n

Officials have partnered with non-profits to distribute food and medicine in the area, also home to thousands of migrant workers left jobless by a weeks-long nationwide lockdown.<\/p>\n

Although the restrictions ordered across India are less severe than those imposed in Dharavi’s hotspots, they have had a lethal impact on the poor.<\/p>\n

The Roti Bank Foundation’s operations manager Jayandrath Tambe told AFP the non-profit organised 4,500 meals daily for Dharavi’s confined residents and was feeding 32,000 people across Mumbai with the help of local hotels.<\/p>\n

Social worker Imran Idris Khan turned to YouTube to upload videos explaining relief efforts in Dharavi and used WhatsApp to inform residents about where to find food.<\/p>\n

“Many families are still sitting at home or people are stuck in factories without any idea about food-packet distribution drives and therefore going hungry,” he told AFP.<\/p>\n

“This should not be happening.”<\/p>\n

– ‘I feel helpless’ –<\/p>\n

The capital of Maharashtra state, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in India, Mumbai has recorded over 3,000 infections among its 18-million-strong population.<\/p>\n

The central government has reported more than 20,000 cases so far in the nation of 1.3 billion people.<\/p>\n

Maharashtra’s chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday tweeted that around 70-75 percent of coronavirus cases in the state “have very mild symptoms or are asymptomatic”.<\/p>\n

Officials in Dharavi tried to ramp up testing by including residents without symptoms, but Mumbai city authority spokesman Vijay Khabale-Patil told AFP New Delhi rejected the move.<\/p>\n

Under the central government’s guidelines, asymptomatic people are tested only if they are high-risk or have come into direct contact with an infected person.<\/p>\n

Just 657 people have been tested in the slum, raising fears that hospitals — reportedly already at full capacity — might struggle to cope if there’s an unexpected spike in severe cases.<\/p>\n

One Dharavi resident receiving treatment for coronavirus said he had no symptoms for three weeks spent almost entirely indoors, before developing a sore throat and fever which refused to subside.<\/p>\n

He has now been in hospital for nine days.<\/p>\n

“I feel helpless at times and worry about my family and neighbourhood,” the 24-year-old told AFP on condition of anonymity as he fears being stigmatised for being sick.<\/p>\n

“Looking at so many people losing lives due to infections makes me feel terrible. Will we ever recover from this?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 125,000 slum-dwellers living under a lockdown so strict that drones monitor their moves and alert police if they attempt to leave home are at the heart of India’s push to contain coronavirus.But with only a handful of people tested so far in the country’s biggest slum, fears are growing that “Mission Dharavi” — a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15708,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13625\/revisions\/15708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}