Mumbai reports 116 new coronavirus cases, 6 deaths

The city reported 116 new confirmed coronavirus cases, including six deaths, on Tuesday, taking the total tally to 642 now and total fatal cases to 40. Mumbai accounts

The city reported 116 new confirmed coronavirus cases, including six deaths, on Tuesday, taking the total tally to 642 now and total fatal cases to 40. Mumbai accounts for more than 60% of the total positive cases in the state, which stood at 1,018 on Tuesday.

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Out of the 116 patients who have been tested positive on Tuesday, 55 were among the high-risk contacts of patients from the containment areas. They were screened at the clinics set up at containment zones, comp doctors, nurses and a lab technician.

Twenty such clinics were operational as of Monday, which screened 614 persons, and collected 185 swabs from suspected persons for testing.

The two high-risk areas in the city have been identified as Dharavi and the Worli Koliwada areas, both of which are densely-populated. Dharavi recorded two new cases on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases from the area to seven. BMC has quarantined 3,250 Dharavi residents at Rajiv Gandhi Sports complex. All the 29 high-risk contacts of both the patients have also been tested and will be provided with essential supplies such by the BMC. Until Tuesday, G South ward, comprising the areas of Worli Koliwada, Janata Nagar, Adarsh Nagar and BDD chawls, recorded 78 cases.

To contain the outbreak of the virus, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday barred the sale of vegetables and fruits on footpaths and in open markets in the 241 containment zones of the city. BMC has already stopped the sale of vegetables and fruits in Worli and Dharavi on Tuesday itself.

Aaditya Thackeray, Maharashtra tourism minister and Worli legislator, on Tuesday took to social media and said, “5,144 people in Worli Koliwada were screened for symptoms. Twelve were found with high grade fever. Tomorrow [Wednesday] too, this drive will continue, till all the residents are covered. This is the second such drive in Worli Koliwada.” He said the city is seeing more cases as more contacts of patients are being traced and tested. “Along with supplies of essentials such as kits and separate kits for senior citizens across Worli, we are focussing majorly on the containment of Covid 19. The spike in cases is being seen as we chase each case with contact tracing, testing and isolating carriers,” he said.

To safeguard front-line workers, BMC has started to administer hydroxychloroquine tablets to them. According to BMC, Mumbai has a stock of more than 1 crore such tablets. It has also airlifted around 12,000 personal protective equipment (PPEs) for all the medical staff in the city, from a manufacturing unit in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. On Thursday, around 30,000 more PPEs will be airlifted to the city.

Meanwhile, 21 staffers of Jaslok Hospital have also been tested positive for coronavirus after the hospital tested its 1,005 in-house employees. None of them is in a critical state, with 19 of them being asymptomatic and two having mild symptoms, civic officials said. Four of them are undergoing treatment at the hospital, while 16 have been sent to Seven Hills Hospital. One is admitted to Kasturba Hospital.

Though the hospital has stopped non-emergency and out-patient department (OPD) services for now, in a statement issued on Tuesday, the management has announced that to resume them from April 13.

The hospital’s spokesperson said that last week when one of the nurses were tested positive, they began contact tracing others, after which they discovered that more staff members have been infected. “We have tested 1,005 doctors and staffers, including the high -risk and low-risk contacts of positive patients and staff . While 984 was tested negative, 21 were found positive. The existing patients were also tested for Covid-19,” he said.

However, BMC has not decided to declare the hospital as a containment zone, as it is responsibly screening all its staffers for any possible transmission of the infection. “They have screened more than 1,000 staff members from their hospital. The hospital is taking proper care of the positive patients. So we have decided not to declare it a containment zone,” a civic official said.

(with inputs from Rupsa Chakraborty)