Massive Crowd Gathers at Mumbai’s Dadar Market Even as Maha Records Highest Single-day Covid-19 Spike

Even as Maharashtra continues to see an alarming surge in its Covid-19 numbers and Maharashtra Health Secretary Pradeep Vyas warning that the state may reach 3 lakh active 19 cases by April, several markets are witnessing big crowds with zero social distancing rules in place.

A massive crowd flocked Dadar’s wholesale vegetable and flower market on Friday morning and a large number of people were seen without face masks, just a day after Maharashtra breached all past records of single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic in the last year and reported 25,833 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday.

The state clocked in 2,877 fresh infections, taking the total caseload to 3,52,835. With eight fatalities, the death toll due to the pandemic in the country’s financial capital increased to 11,555.

On Thursday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) decided to temporarily shift the Dadar market after videos on social media showed citizens had gathered in huge numbers and were not following any Covid-19 mandates.

The decision was taken during a meeting between the Mayor of Mumbai Kishori Pednekar and other officials from the G North ward office of BMC, sources told News18.

“It is a temporary move. We have identified two locations and will take a decision soon. One is the Somaiya grounds located in Sion (an eastern suburb) or the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC)” said a civic official from the BMC while speaking to CNN-News18.

Sources also suggests that despite increasing the number of marshals at the Dadar market, both vendors and customers were flouting norms. Dadar has seen a spike in cases with over 20 cases found in a single day yesterday.

Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar had earlier said that the market would be divided into four different parts so that crowds could be controlled. But the move seems to have not worked with this decision of shifting the market altogether being taken.

As many as 23,402 COVID-19 tests were conducted in Mumbai in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of tests to 36,37,790. With increase in COVID-19 cases since the start of the month, the patient recovery rate in Mumbai has gone down to 91 per centfrom 93 per cent.

The average growth rate of COVID-19 cases in the city has increased to 0.51 per cent from 0.17 per cent on February 18, while the average doubling rate of cases has gone down to 136 days from 417 days. The city has 34 containment zones in slums and chawls, while 267 buildings have been sealed after coronavirus patients were found there.

Since the first case — a Dubai-returned person — was found in the city on March 11, 2020, cases gradually went up, before reaching a peak in September-October and then steadily went down till February.

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