Mumbai, Jun 22 (IANS): The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has sealed Tahnee Heights, a 28-storey residential tower in the posh Malabar Hill area after 21 Covid-19 cases were detected in one a week, including 10 on Friday, officials said here on Monday.

The sealing orders have been issued by BMC D-Ward Assistant Municipal Commissioner Prashant Gaikwad, on the building at Napean Sea Road, which houses several well known personalities of the country's financial capital.

"We detected a total of 21 cases in the past seven days. They include two residents and 19 domestic workers, drivers and security personnel," AMC Gaikwad said.

A lone driver was first detected positive last week, and he reportedly spread the infection to other drivers, security men and house helps, besides a couple, and the BMC has managed to identify and track almost all his "first contacts".

"In order to break the chain, it is necessary to seal the entire building as the staffers may have possibly infected others as they work in different flats," Gaikwad added.

While a couple from the building with mild symptoms has been kept in home quarantine in their flat, the others infected have been shifted to various institutional isolation centres.

The BMC will take up sanitization drives in all the common areas, toilets used by the staff, elevators and other places 4-6 times daily to minimize the spread of the virus, till the society makes its own arrangements.

Besides, BMC teams will take up regular screenings of all the society building residents and advise the maangement of the building -- which is among the most expensive pieces of real estate in the country -- to do likewise.