Covid-19: With drones and tests, India battles to keep virus out of Mumbai’s slums

Staff members of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) watch large screens to monitor the movement of people on the roads, inside a ‘war room’ focused on halting the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), in Mumbai, India. — Reuters

MUMBAI: In an air-conditioned government building in Mumbai, a dozen officials are glued to a giant screen showing live drone and CCTV footage of crowded slums, the frontline in the city's battle to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

When cameras captured dozens of shoppers thronging a market in Mumbai's low-income Dongri area last week, violating the countrywide lockdown begun on March 25, officials called in the police to disperse the crowd.