Man With Coronavirus In Mumbai's Dharavi Dies, Building Sealed

A man who tested positive for the highly contagious coronavirus in Mumbai's Dharavi, the largest slum cluster in Asia,  has died. The patient was shifted to the Sion hospital earlier on Wednesday evening, sources said. The other seven residents of the house have been home quarantined. They will be tested on Thursday.

Sources said the authorities have sealed the building, which is located in a redeveloped part of Dharavi. 

While Mumbai has a chunk of Maharashtra's 300-plus COVID-19 cases, the appearance of the virus in Dharavi is a cause for concern. More than a million people live in the 5 square km maze of dirty lanes, cramped huts and open sewers. 

Mumbai was identified as a "hotspot" of the virus after the city witnessed a sharp spike in the number of cases yesterday. Fifty-nine people tested positive over a 24-hour period. The corresponding figure today was 30. The total number of positive cases in Maharashtra is 335, 16 people are dead.

On Wednesday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, shifted 86 people from South Mumbai's Worli Koliwada locality to a quarantine facility as a precautionary measure. The civic body has identified Worli Koliwada as one of the containment zones in the metropolis and completely sealed the area, reported new agency Press Trust of India, quoting a spokesperson of the civic body.

The BMC has identified total 145 containment zones in Mumbai, where one or more COVID-19 cases were found or suspected patients lived.

The city's Jaslok Hospital today shut down its Out-Patient Department after two nurses tested positive. The hospital said one of them had come in contact with a COVID-19 patient.

"All the medical staff who came in direct or indirect contact of the affected nurse and the connected patient have been identified and quarantined as per the protocol. We have conducted direct and indirect contact tracing and swab testing is in process," the hospital said.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in the country rose to 1,637 today, of which 1,466 cases are active, 38 people have died.