184 New COVID-19 Cases In Mumbai, Total In Maharashtra Rises To 3,648

The number of people infected with the highly contagious COVID-19 rose to 117 today in Mumbai's Dharavi, Asia's largest slum, with 16 new cases in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra is the worst-hit state with 3,648 cases.

A total of 184 new cases, including the figure from Dharavi, were reported from Mumbai today.

The civic agency BMC said many of the new patients were already among those who have been kept in isolation. Over 37,000 people have been screened for COVID-19 in Dharavi so far.

Nearly a million people live in Dharavi, a 5 square km slum that has a maze of dirty lanes and cramped huts packed with large families. Ten deaths have been reported from there.

One of the people who was found infected with COVID-109 in the last 24 hours is the niece of a patient who attended an event organised by the Islamic sect Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi's Nizamuddin. The event had emerged as the hotspot of the coronavirus in India when thousands of the Jamaat's members were found positive.

Over 70 per cent of the residents in Dharavi use community toilets. The slum has more people than some of the smaller countries. Small industries and workshops for leather goods, pottery and textiles operate from the slum spread over 613 acres.

Thickly populated zones like Dharavi are a huge challenge in efforts to enforce social distancing critical in checking coronavirus, which spreads easily from person to person.

A new case of COVID-19 was also reported from Dadar in Mumbai today, taking the total to 22.

The number of coronavirus cases in India climbed to 14,792, which includes 488 deaths, the Health Ministry said today, adding that 957 new cases and 43 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

The doubling rate of COVID-19 cases has dropped to 6.2 days from three days before a countrywide lockdown was imposed, the government said on Friday. The decline is the result of increased testing, including that of patients suffering from SARI (severe acute respiratory illness) and ILI (influenza-like illness), the government added.