Mumbai: The World Health Organisation (WHO) while recognizing Dharavi as Asia’s largest slum, also praised Dharavi for its successful efforts of the Mission Dharavi implemented by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for breaking the transmission chain and suppressing the virus.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking to newspersons late on Friday at Geneva in Switzerland, referred to the achievements of Dharavi in Mumbai among other similar examples in globally in as in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, New Zealand, Italy, Spain and South Korea.
“Even in Dharavi, a densely packed area in Mumbai, a strong focus on community engagement and the basics of testing, tracing, isolating and treating all those that are sick is key to breaking the chains of transmission, and suppressing the virus,” Ghebreyesus said in his tweet.
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The BMC started the Mission Dharavi to deal with the densely populated Dharavi. Dharavi is spread in the area of 2.5 km has the densely population of 2,27,136 per Sq. Km. On Tuesday, only one corona positive case was recorded after successful containment. Till now, Dharavi recorded 2,300 corona positive cases.
BMC replied to the tweet, “Thank You, WHO for acknowledging Mission Dharavi where it partnered with citizens to ‘Chase the Virus’ from one of the most populous blocks of the city”.
On this, Additional Municipal Commissioner, BMC, Suresh Kakani and his team were happy. Speaking to The News 21 he said, “It is encouraging news for us and gives us immense energy to work on the similar line elsewhere in the city. We are on the right track and our strategies are paying us positive results”.
After the success of the Mission Dharavi the pattern was followed in North Mumbai where there has been a huge spike in recent weeks through a public-private-partnership (PPP) model.
However, both Mumbai and Maharashtra have a long way to go yet as the state recorded a new high of 7,862 cases and deaths stood at 9,893, while Mumbai has notched 5,205 fatalities and 90,461 cases till date.-By Vikas Nag
