India’s ‘Maximum City’ Engulfed by Coronavirus- NYT

The city that boasts billionaires and Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, has gone down in the fight against coronavirus. NYT reports, “This city of 20 million is now responsible for 20 percent of India’s coronavirus infections and nearly 25 percent of the deaths.”

Hospitals in Mumbai are overflowing with patients. The local administration is exhausted enforcing stay-at-home orders.

Many say the severity of virus cases is due to the high density of population in the city. It also encamps the biggest slum in the world. “In Dharavi, Mumbai’s biggest slum, infections are exploding. Trying to trace contacts, health workers squeeze through tiny alleyways, some narrower than a pair of shoulders – you have to turn sideways to pass through”, highlights the report.

The lockdown of a nation of 1.3 billion people has brought debilitating consequences for its population. Migrant laborers are fleeing the city. With them they carry the virus from the worst affected state to far reaches of the country.

Further the report notes, “Tensions are increasing between the rich and poor. As the contagion tightens its grip on Mumbai’s slums, many wealthier residents are determined to stay away from slum dwellers. Housing associations in the fancier parts of town have barred maids, watchmen and casual laborers – many of whom live in the slums – from coming to work.”

Link to the original article-https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/world/asia/mumbai-lockdown-coronavirus.html