In a worrying development, COVID-19 infections in Dharavi, one of the world's biggest slums, are increasing at a spiralling rate. On Thursday, the number of COVID-19 patients reached 783 with 50 new cases surfacing there, a senior official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.
So far 21 people have died due to the infection in the slum, but no death was reported on Thursday.
According to the official, the fresh cases were detected in Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, 60-feet Road, transit camp, 90-feet Road, Matunga Labour camp, Kumbharwada,Indira Nagar, Kala Kills and some other localities of Dharavi.
The Central team has advised the state to aggressively expand its isolation facilities and shift high-risk people in containment zones of Dharavi to control community spread.?
Overall, Maharashtra reported 1,216 new cases and 43 more deaths, taking its tally of confirmed cases so far to 17,974 with 694 fatalities.
The nationwide tally of COVID-19 cases crossed 56,000 on Thursday with big urban centres like Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Chennai reporting rising numbers of people having tested positive for the deadly virus infection, but the count of those who have recovered also neared 16,000.
More than 5,000 new cases have been detected across the country since Wednesday morning, figures announced by different states and union territories showed. The nationwide death toll also crossed 1,800 while fatalities were reported from paramilitary forces too.
A significant number of health workers and security personnel, who are among the 'frontline warriors' in the COVID-19 fight, have tested positive for the deadly virus in the recent days.