Kalyan-Dombivali overtakes Thane, turns biggest hotspot with maximum cases

Kalyan-Dombivli is slowly heading towards being one of the biggest coronavirus hotspots in Mumbai. The region has now overtaken Thane which has reported a total of 14,114 cases so far while there are 5,608 active cases. 

As of Tuesday, Kalyan-Dombivli has seen a total of 207 deaths while there are 6,433 active cases in the region. Till May 6, the region looked like its civic body had everything under control. Its Covid-19 tally was only 233 as the BMC crossed the 9,000-mark.

However the number of cases in the region slowly started mounting in the next few days. 

Residents and activists from the region have blamed the lack of preparedness by the Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) to fight the deadly virus. 

The KDMC is not equipped to tackle the COVID-19 situation in the region, as for a population of 18 lakh it has only 4,471 COVID-19 beds spread across 20 health centres in Kalyan-Dombivli, complained the residents. 

The KDMC has said claimed that it has increased testing of patients and that local corporators have been asked to make sure symptomatic patients are sent to nearby fever clinics. However, residents dispute this by saying that the authorities are not testing family members or contacts of positive patients, which defeats the entire purpose.