It was mentioned during Ghebreyesus’ daily press briefing on Covid Friday, where he gave examples of countries that have been able to control the outbreak. He also urged nations to take aggressive combative strategies.

“Only aggressive action combined with national unity and global solidarity can turn this pandemic around,” he said. 

“There are many examples from around the world that have shown that even if the outbreak is very intense it can still be brought back under control. And some of these examples are Italy, Spain, South Korea and even in Dharavi, in a dense populated area in the megacity of Mumbai,” he said.

“A strong focus on community engagement and the basics of testing, tracing, isolating and treating all that is the key to breaking the chain of transmission and suppressing the virus,” he added. 

The Dharavi case

In May, Mumbai’s Dharavi saw an explosion of cases and was quickly becoming a headache for the Maharashtra government as the number of Covid-positive cases in the densely-populated area spun out of control.

As the narrow lanes and shared toilets of Asia’s largest slum denoted a possible community transmission, the BMC ramped up its testing and door-to-door survey in the area.

“It was a task that was deemed to fail but we have surprised everyone,” Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner, in charge of G north ward consisting of Dadar, Mahim and Dharavi, had said earlier.The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) thanked the WHO on Twitter for the acknowledgement of its efforts in the “one of the most populous blocks of the city”.

The slum has managed to effectively flatten the curve with the help of increased testing, using private clinics and setting up massive quarantine facilities, he had said.

On Tuesday, Dharavi reportedly recorded only one case, its lowest single-day tally in two months. The total number of cases in the area now stands at 2,359, with 166 active cases.

As of Saturday, Maharashtra has recorded 2,38,461 Covid cases and 9,893 deaths.

News media is in a crisis & only you can fix it

You are reading this because you value good, intelligent and objective journalism. We thank you for your time and your trust.

You also know that the news media is facing an unprecedented crisis. It is likely that you are also hearing of the brutal layoffs and pay-cuts hitting the industry. There are many reasons why the media’s economics is broken. But a big one is that good people are not yet paying enough for good journalism.

We have a newsroom filled with talented young reporters. We also have the country’s most robust editing and fact-checking team, finest news photographers and video professionals. We are building India’s most ambitious and energetic news platform. And we aren’t even three yet.

At ThePrint, we invest in quality journalists. We pay them fairly and on time even in this difficult period. As you may have noticed, we do not flinch from spending whatever it takes to make sure our reporters reach where the story is. Our stellar coronavirus coverage is a good example. You can check some of it here.

This comes with a sizable cost. For us to continue bringing quality journalism, we need readers like you to pay for it. Because the advertising market is broken too.

If you think we deserve your support, do join us in this endeavour to strengthen fair, free, courageous, and questioning journalism, please click on the link below. Your support will define our journalism, and ThePrint’s future. It will take just a few seconds of your time.