BMC ON A SEALING DRIVE
As many as 1,305 buildings have been sealed till Friday and the number is expected to rise
Two days after the BMC reissued norms for sealing of buildings and floors in the city the civic body has launched a stringent drive. As the numbers were on the decline, the civic body was only sealing a building if it had 10 patients. However, now even if there are 5 cases the entire building will be sealed. So far the civic body has sealed as many as 984 buildings/ floors in a day.
According to the data shared by the BMC on Saturday, the number of sealed buildings/floors has gone up from 321 on February 18 to 1,305 on February 19, recording an increase of almost 75 per cent. Meanwhile, the number of containment zones (congested areas/ slums) have increased to 93 on Feb 19 from 57 on Feb 18.
According to Civic officials earlier only the data of completely sealed buildings was being maintained primarily as positive cases in the city were on the decline. However, now, even data of sealed floors are being recorded owing to the rising number of Covid-19 cases.
Off the 1,305 sealed buildings/floors, T Ward (Mulund, Nahur) has the maximum numbers of sealed buildings/floors (233), followed by N Ward (Ghatkopar, Vikhroli west) and P South (Goregaon) having 125 sealed buildings/ floors each and D ward (Malabar Hill, Napean Sea Road, Grant Road) with 110 sealed buildings and floors.
"Cases were on a decline and we were only sealing floors and hence the number of sealed buildings reflected was low. Now, it has been decided to seal the entire building once again and we are recording both data like earlier," said a senior BMC official.
Another official said that earlier, there had to be 10 positive cases in a building to get it sealed but now, even if there are five cases the building has to be sealed.
This according to BMC officials too is leading to a rise in the number of sealed buildings.
Meanwhile H west ward (Bandra west, Khar) has registered the highest number of infection growth rate among all 24 wards with 0.32%, followed by T ward (Mulund) with 0.26% and M west ward (Govandi, Chembur) with 0.24%. R Central (Borivali) and G south ward (Prabhadevi, Worli and Lower Parel) has the lowest growth rate in the city with 0.11% and 0.12% respectively. Meanwhile, city's overall infection growth rate has spiked to 0.19 percent.