EXCLUSIVE: Borivali resident shares her experience living in a COVID-19 'containment zone'

As Maharashtra's tally soars to 625 on Saturday, with 145 cases reported since Friday, Mumbai's Municipal Corporation - BMC has created 241 'containment zones' throughout the city. One such containment area is Borivali (East)'s Dheeraj Upvan society. Ten days after two individuals with foreign travel history tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19), BMC sealed off the entire society comprising of 10 buildings - over 300 flats - on Wednesday. Speaking exclusively to Republicworld, Sulakshana Shrimavle - a resident currently in self-quarantine, narrated her experience.

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Inside Borivali's containment zone during Corona lockdown

Recalling the day the two cases were discovered she said, "The BMC along with a fire brigade and the police rushed to the building. Both people were shifted to the hospital and their maid was tested too. Immediately the building was sanitised and residents in the four buildings surrounding it were instructed to self-quarantine."

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Lauding the thorough job the BMC, the Mumbai police and the building's committee members were doing, she said "Milkmen have been instructed to visit the building in the morning. Every resident forms a queue and takes the milk packets, dropped in the pouches by the gate. We have also tied up with the nearby Janta grocery store to procure groceries twice a week - Tuesdays and Fridays. The items which are ordered are placed in a pouch near the gate and one by one the residents go and take their ordered groceries. Vegetable vendors' truck visit every four hours outside the building for us."

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Shrimavle added that apart from taking care of their day-to-day needs, the BMC was regularly inspecting the residents' health. With an on-call doctor in the society, those in need of other medical attention are taken care of. She also stated that BMC was ensuring that spraying disinfectant and fogging is done every two days and that the garbage from the five buildings closest to the COVID-19 positive cases' flat has been separated from the rest of the building's waste, to ensure minimal contamination.

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With three watchmen too stuck inside the 'containment zone', she said that the society's committee was taking care of their lodgings, food and other needs during the lockdown. After almost 10 days of self-quarantine, Shrimavle stated that there were no more new cases inside the society. Moreover, the BMC is reportedly tracking all the residents during their routine visits - asking if symptoms of breathlessness are experienced by any resident. The residents hope with such stringent quarantining and with no new cases reported in the past two weeks, they will soon be freed from their 'containment zone'.