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

The alleged mishandling of COVID19 cases by the Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation VVCMC has led to the spread of the virus in the VasaiNalasoparaVirar 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 Mumbais Dharavi with a high density of populationThe Public Relations Officer of VVCMC Digambar Desai said there in the past 15 days there have been a total of 385 cases of COVID19 in Nalasopara East Till now 15 people have died and 210 patients are still undergoing treatment But 160 out of 385 COVID19 patients have recovered and were discharged said Desai The population of the three slums is nearly 8 lakhOmkar Seva Sanstha chawl has been sealed but people come out to fill waterLocal 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 COVID19 after the use of common public toilets These have not been disinfected by the municipality alleged a residentArea not disinfectedThe municipality has left us to die On Friday a 45yearold 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 chawlLocals alleged the public toilets are not being disinfected by the civic corporation and people are testing positive after using themImmediately after the outbreak of COVID19 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 BhagatVVCMC must actThere is severe shortage of ambulance facility and quarantine centres alleged Pankaj Patil a nagarsevak from DhanivGangatharan DA 54yearold 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 PatilHer 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 VasaiVirar area are being rushed to Thane hospitals If the civic authority does not wake up on time the COVID19 cases will spread faster than Mumbais Dharavi he addedDeepak BhagatChavan 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 Chavans daughterinlaw Now Chavans eight members family have been asked to get quarantinedChavans other daughterinlaw 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 usNo social distancing normsThe 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 chawlSince Unlock1 has been executed the residents of the chawls in Nalasopara East have been violating all the norms to further spread the virusDr Sudhir Pandre of the Arogya Kendra in Dhaniv said The COVID19 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 COVID19 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 safeThe COVID19 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 monthslong efforts of all the front line workers will go in vainA midday 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 waterNo option but to step outThis is the case at Omkar Seva Sanstha chawl where the authority sealed a room three days ago after a person died of COVID19 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 bucketSingh and his neighbours told midday 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 COVID19 the authority sealed the autorickshaw but has not disinfected it nor the lane Singh addedCivic chief speakI dont 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 VasaiVirar area to combat further spread of novel Coronavirus said civic chief Gangatharan DCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news