The slum-dominated Dharavi area of Mumbai did not report a single coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours, a civic official said on Friday evening.
For the first time since April 1 when the first coronavirus patient was detected in the area, the densest urban settlements in the world, no new case has been detected.
Earlier in July, the World Health Organisation had praised the measures adopted by authorities to contain the spread of the virus in Dharavi, saying that effective testing and tracing had helped break the chain of transmission of the highly contagious disease.
WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the examples of Italy, Spain, South Korea, and India’s biggest slum showed that however bad an outbreak was, the virus could still be reined in through aggressive action.
"In 🇻🇳🇰🇭🇹🇭🇳🇿🇮🇹🇪🇸 & 🇰🇷 & even in Dharavi, a densely packed area in Mumbai, a strong focus on community engagement & the basics of testing, tracing, isolating & treating all those that are sick is key to breaking the chains of transmission & suppressing the virus"-@DrTedros
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) July 10, 2020
The caseload of Dharavi now stands at 3,788, though the number of active cases is 12, eight of them in home isolation and four in a COVID care center, the civic official said.
Strict lockdown and accessible testing also contributed hugely in getting control over the spread of the virus.
So far, 3,464 people have recovered in Dharavi, where 6.5 lakh people are crammed into shanty colonies spread over 2.5 square kilometers.
Maharashtra recorded 3,580 cases on Thursday, taking the tally to 1,909,951. The death toll breached the 49,000 marks after 89 new casualties. Maharashtra has controlled its daily caseload and has not crossed 5,000 cases for the past 20 days. A total of 98,503 cases have been reported in December, against the 109,166 from November 1 to November 24.
Mumbai clocked 643 cases, taking the count to 289,204, and 12 deaths, taking the toll to 11,045. Pune city recorded 299 cases, pushing the tally to 189,338. Nagpur city stands third after Mumbai and Pune in terms of daily caseload with 237 new cases.
