Mumbai's Dharavi, also Asia's largest slum and one of the world's biggest slums, has reported the third case of coronavirus.?A 35-year-old doctor who has a clinic on the main road in Dharavi area of Mumbai tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday.
This is a third COVID-19 case where the patient has a connection with Dharavi, a densely populated slum which could be a challenge for authorities if any more cases are reported.
An official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said a doctor who had a clinic on Dharavi's main road and who was also attached as a surgeon to a prominent private hospital tested positive for the virus.
"The building where he lives will be quarantined and all high-risk contacts will be traced," the BMC official said.?The doctor has no travel history but police are probing the matter.
On April 1, a 56-year-old garment shop owner living in a Slum Rehabilitation Authority building in Dharavi became the first person from the area to test positive for coronavirus. He died on the same evening.
On Thursday morning, a municipal sweeper who lived in Worli but was posted at Dharavi tested positive.
The BMC has already created containment zones where these two cases were found and restricted the movement of over 2,500 persons in these areas.
Many have argued that social distancing is a privilege for those who have smaller families and larger homes. For those who have been living in shanties in densely packed areas, social distancing is out of the question.?
Many in these areas are trying to?comply with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 21-day nationwide lockdown, aimed to stop coronavirus spreading further among the country's 1.3 billion people. But for those who have a hand-to-mouth existence, social distancing doesn't exist.Social distancing is working for those who live in houses, have stock food to rely on when running out of fresh groceries and are working from home using modern technology.?
However, for India's massive population which lives in huts and may go without food if they are out of work even for a day, social distancing is economically and physically possible, just as the case in Dharavi. The slum poses more than one challenge and the country is also dealing with on after what happened at a Delhi's mosque. There is a underlying fear of mass infection, if more cases are found in Dharavi and is keeping authorities on toes.