MUMBAI: The 56-year-old man from Dharavi claimed by Covid-19 on Wednesday had come in contact with a bunch of people who had attended the religious congregation of the Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in Delhi in mid-March.

Five women who arrived in the city on March 22 from the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz, where over 13,000 had congregated and to which a few hundred positive cases have been linked so far, stayed in a flat owned by the deceased in the same locality, said authorities.

While their male partners stayed at Jamia Masjid in Shahu Nagar of Dharavi, the women stayed at the flat owned by the deceased in Dr Baliga Nagar, said a municipal official.

“It has been found that the deceased spent time with all these persons during their stay in Mumbai before they left on March 24 for Kozhikode,” the official said.

It was learnt that the police planned to get hold of the call data records of the deceased as his family was not cooperating in sharing details on the people he might have met over the past two weeks.

The deceased had tested positive for Covid-19 on the day of his death, following which the BMC began tracing his contacts to establish how many persons might have caught the coronavirus and to understand the source of his infection.

BMC officials said they were awaiting the test results of the 15 high-risk contacts of the deceased to know if he might have infected any one from his family.

Locals said the area had turned subdued following the death. Abdul Hakim Hashmi, a resident, said containment zones had been marked, but since residents had small living small spaces there, they would step out occasionally.

In the case of the 35-yearold surgeon from Dharavi who tested positive for Covid-19, the BMC zeroed down on 25 of his high-risk contacts, all from his family and those living in his society.

The doctor, working with Wockhart Hospital, had no foreign travel history but had travelled to Rajasthan in the first week of March. Officials suspected the doctor contracted the virus at work. Vaibhav Society, where the doctor lives, has over 50 flats and was sealed by the BMC on Thursday evening.

Society members said entry and exit to the building had been restricted and they were told that essential supplies like milk and vegetables would be made available to them.

Another resident said only milk had been made available so far and there were no instructions on how other essentials would be provided.

“The BMC team visited the building and samples of the family members of the doctor and neighbours were taken,” yet another resident said. “People living in the nearby flats have been asked to go into home quarantine.”

The doctor has a flat taken on rent in the housing society from where the 56-year-old businessman tested positive and died.

“The doctor had self-isolated for a few days as he was showing symptoms,” a resident said. “He got himself tested on his own and got admitted as soon as the reports were positive. That was a very responsible thing to do.”

Residents said they were worried after the positive cases. “So far these cases are from buildings and contact tracing can be done, so the situation is still under control,” said a health staffer from the BMC.