By Dr Sujit Chatterjee Hiranandani Hospital 
According to Hiranandani Hospital Powai, It’s been nearly eight months since India’s devastating second wave of infections peaked. However, the development of Omicron, a novel and highly transmissible form of Sars-CoV-2, has resulted in a large increase in infections around the world, rapidly outpacing all other varieties.
Though the variety appears to be significantly less virulent than Delta, its ability to avoid immunizations and enhanced transmissibility have raised fears that it could cause the pandemic to linger on for months.
Last week, high-rises were responsible for more than 88 percent of Covid cases in the metropolis. According to civic data, slums rarely record large numbers of infections.
Because of the increase in instances, the company conducted an examination of the 3,300 or so positive cases recorded in the preceding week. “For about 88 percent of the incidents, buildings are responsible. Not many cases are from slum areas”, Suresh Kakani, an additional municipal commissioner, agreed. During the second wave, a similar tendency was observed, which was ascribed to slum inhabitants’ increased exposure to better immunity to testing bias.
Building occupants testing positive after overseas travel or a social gathering are predominantly driving cases in some of the city’s wards with the greatest weekly growth rates, including A (0.15 percent), D (0.13 percent), H-West (0.12 percent), G-South (0.12 percent), and K-West (0.12 percent).
A closer examination reveals the slum-building split to be even more pronounced. Take the M-West ward, which includes Chembur and Tilak Nagar and has almost 1.5 lakh people living in slums, or 35% of the population. Despite this, Dr Bhupendra Patil, the ward’s medical officer of health, confessed that the unit hasn’t seen many cases (MOH).
“Almost all of our patients are inhabitants of the building,” he remarked. Only a few people have travelled abroad. “The most common source we discovered was a recent wedding reception or a social gathering they had attended,” he stated.
In N ward (Ghatkopar, Vidyavihar), where up to 60% of the population lives in slums, although cases are predominantly in high-rises, the pattern is similar. Since the beginning of time. “However, just four or five would come from the slums,” said Dr Mahendra Khandade, the ward’s MOH. The majority of his positive patients stated that they had gone out to eat or that they had attended a friend or family member’s wedding.
Thankfully, crowd was less on Monday as we fined Rs. 10,000 to five restaurants for opening despite of 9pm curfew, he added.
However, just because there isn’t much detection in the slums doesn’t mean there isn’t any.
Khandade stated that there are no cases. “Many slum inhabitants are concerned about missing employment so they hesitate in getting tested. Moreover, some people also do not take the sickness seriously because of the modest symptoms and signs”, he added.
He claims that because building residents are tested more frequently, there is an inherent testing bias that manifests itself in higher cases in wealthier areas.
According to Kakani, no single element has been identified as the cause of Mumbai’s exponential growth. “It’s not confirm what’s causing it, whether it’s weddings, people returning from abroad and testing positive afterwards, or local visitors coming to the city,” he said.
As the number of cases rises, so does the number of hospitalizations. Dr. Gautam Bhansali of Bombay Hospital indicated that admissions are in the double digits, despite the fact that serious cases are rare. According to Dr. Sujit Chatterjee, CEO of Hiranandani Hospital, there were 13 new Covid admissions on Monday, up from 4-5 the day before. 2023
The VyVyMangaa.Com