Mumbai among 9 districts on radar

Nine districts in Maharashtra – Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Ahmednagar, Beed, Yavatmal, and Nagpur are on the radar of the state health department

Nine districts in Maharashtra – Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Ahmednagar, Beed, Yavatmal, and Nagpur are on the radar of the state health department after five persons travelling from Dubai to Pune were confirmed as positive for the coronavirus.

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As per the state health department, six people from Mumbai; one from Thane; two from Raigad; three from Pune; three from Pimpri-Chinchwad; four from Ahmednagar; three from Beed; 10 from Yavatmal; three from Nagpur; and three from Belgaum were part of a group of 40 travellers who visited Dubai between February 23 and February 29 and returned on March 1.

State surveillance officer, Dr Pradip Awate said, “We have identified 40 travellers across the state and decided to track them to avoid further infection.” The state health department also decided to track each person who came in contact with these 40 passengers since their arrival in the country.

Elaborating on the situation, Archana Patil, state director of health services, said, “First, we have decided to track 40 passengers to avoid further spread of the virus.” As per the guidelines from the Central government, passengers from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, North Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia are to be screened at airports.

As a precautionary measure, the health department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has quarantined six travellers, who arrived in Mumbai from foreign countries, at Kasturba Hospital. As per the statistics released by the civic health department, as of now, 139 suspected patients were admitted in hospitals; of these, 133 were found negative for the Covid-19. The test results of the remaining six passengers are awaited.

To deal with the situation, the BMC has organised training of staff of four hospitals for Covid-19 preparedness. They are being given training on how to handle suspected coronavirus patients. Health staffers from Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar; KB Bhabha Hospital, Bandra; KB Bhabha Municipal Hospital, Kurla; and Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Trauma Care, Jogeshwari, took part in this programme on Tuesday.

The civic health department has also swung into action and launched a dedicated website to get one-stop information about the coronavirus. StopCoronavirus.mcgm.gov.in features lists of preventive measures, symptoms, medical centres to get help, etc, in English as well as Marathi.

As per statistics shared by the civic health department, around 176,516 international passengers were scanned at Mumbai airport by the BMC and state health department to date.