Mumbai: Is Nalasopara turning into next COVID-19 hotspot?

With crumbling infrastructure and alleged mishandling by local authorities, people in Vasai-Virar belt, most of whom work in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai, are worried

The alleged mishandling of COVID-19 cases by the Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC) has led to the spread of the virus in the Vasai-Nalasopara-Virar stretch. Now, it has reached the Santosh Bhavan slum and its adjacent chawls, Shriram Nagar and Dhaniv, in Nalasopara East, where the lanes are narrower than Mumbai's Dharavi, with a high density of population.

The Public Relations Officer of VVCMC, Digambar Desai, said there in the past 15 days there have been a total of 385 cases of COVID-19 in Nalasopara East. "Till now 15 people have died and 210 patients are still undergoing treatment. But 160 out of 385 COVID-19 patients have recovered and were discharged," said Desai. The population of the three slums is nearly 8 lakh.

Omkar Seva Sanstha chawl has been sealed but people come out to fill water

Local residents fear fast community spread in Santosh Bhavan and the Shriram Nagar chawl, as many of them have tested positive and several have been quarantined and are developing symptoms of COVID-19 after the use of common public toilets. These have not been disinfected by the municipality, alleged a resident.

'Area not disinfected'
"The municipality has left us to die. On Friday, a 45-year-old man, who lives right in front of my house, tested positive and his family was quarantined a day later. The municipality staff reached the chawl and sealed his house. I kept asking them to sanitise the area as we are reeling under constant threat of getting infected, but the staff told me that the commissioner has asked us to seal the room and not to disinfect the nearby area. We have been living inside our room with door shut the whole day," said Deepak Bhagat alias Baban of Shriram Nagar chawl.

Locals alleged the public toilets are not being disinfected by the civic corporation and people are testing positive after using them

"Immediately after the outbreak of COVID-19, a mist blower was installed in our area, but now it has been removed by the municipality. There are several common public toilets but no initiative has been taken by the civic staff to disinfect them. Six people have tested positive after using a public toilet which is in the containment zone of Shriram Nagar," said Bhagat.

'VVCMC must act'
"There is severe shortage of ambulance facility and quarantine centres," alleged Pankaj Patil, a nagarsevak from Dhaniv.

Gangatharan D

"A 54-year-old woman, Bharti Chavan, recently complained of breathlessness and fever in Shriram Nagar. She was taken to three hospitals but none of them admitted her citing unavailability of ICU beds," said Patil.

"Her family members approached me and we made an arrangement to admit her at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj civic hospital in Kalwa. Can you imagine the residents of Vasai-Virar area are being rushed to Thane hospitals! If the civic authority does not wake up on time, the COVID19 cases will spread faster than Mumbai's Dharavi," he added.

Deepak Bhagat

Chavan died at the Kalwa hospital on Sunday. "We had been struggling to get an ambulance since 7 pm on Saturday and it reached us at 1 am. She reached Kalwa hospital at 2 pm. Now she is dead," said Darshana, Chavan's daughter-in-law. Now, Chavan's eight members family have been asked to get quarantined.

Chavan's other daughter-in-law Ashvini said, "There is acute shortage of medical facility in Nalasopara area. The government is not providing us any facility like sanitisation, ambulance, beds in hospital, etc. People are dying but the municipality is not doing anything for poor people like us."

No social distancing norms
The lackadaisical attitude of authorities could drive the whole area to collapse due to the virus as residents have also not been following social distancing norms. A local resident of Santosh Bhavan, Pramod Dubey said, "In the evening, a large number of people gather to buy vegetables and other essentials keeping social distancing at bay. No policeman or civic authority is worried about the conditions of people living in chawl."

Since Unlock1 has been executed, the residents of the chawls in Nalasopara East have been violating all the norms to further spread the virus.

Dr Sudhir Pandre of the Arogya Kendra in Dhaniv said, "The COVID-19 threat looms large as people are not ready to maintain social distancing. I must say that 15 days ago, there were hardly any cases of COVID-19 but they started to rise in the past few days because people think that after the lockdown, the threat of novel Coronavirus has receded. We have been requesting people to maintain social distancing to stay safe."

The COVID-19 threat here still persists as 90 percent of the population of Santosh Bhavan works in different parts in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Palghar district. If the disease is not contained within limited time, the adjacent districts could collapse and the months-long efforts of all the front line workers will go in vain.

A mid-day team that visited several areas in the chawls on Sunday found people roaming in the local shops. The authorities have sealed several rooms but people residing in the narrow lanes are bound to come out to fill water.

'No option but to step out'
This is the case at Omkar Seva Sanstha chawl where the authority sealed a room three days ago after a person died of COVID-19. "Karan Singh died three days ago and his three members family have been quarantined by municipality. Our lane is surrounded by containment zones but we have to come out to fill municipality water. Obviously we are scared but we have no option," said Dheeraj Singh, who too was filling water in his bucket.

Singh and his neighbours told mid-day that the municipality does not provide them ambulances at the time of emergency. "No ambulance was available when we had to rush Karan to hospital. His family members rushed him to hospital in an autorickshaw. After Karan died of COVID-19, the authority sealed the autorickshaw but has not disinfected it nor the lane," Singh added.

Civic chief speak
"I don't know how the lady (Chavan) reached a hospital in Kalwa. I need to verify the allegations made by local people and her relatives. Regarding containment zones, I must say that there is a dedicated team to spray in containment zones. And if anyone comes up with a particular area to sanitise, we will do our best. Everything is being followed in Vasai-Virar area to combat further spread of novel Coronavirus," said civic chief Gangatharan D.

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