Mumbai’s 1st patients, six others discharged

The city-based couple, among the first from Mumbai to get infected, and six others were discharged from Kasturba Hospital on Tuesday evening. They were co-passengers

The city-based couple, among the first from Mumbai to get infected, and six others were discharged from Kasturba Hospital on Tuesday evening. They were co-passengers of the Pune couple who had returned from Dubai and tested positive for the coronavirus on March 8.

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After reaching home, the couple first cleaned the flat. “We weren’t here for over two weeks, so the first thing we did was clean the flat,” said a 70-year-old man.

“Because of the curfew, our help refused to come.”

Along with symptomatic medicines, the couple was also given swine flu drugs – Tamiflu – as per the guidelines issued by the central health department.

Dr Daksha Shah, deputy health director, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), said, “Some of them haven’t completed 14 days of isolation but as they have turned asymptomatic, we decided to discharge them.”

However, a recent report by Lancet, an international science journal stated that the virus-SARS-CoV-2 can remain active in faeces for five weeks and recommended stool test before declaring any patient

cured.

“The virus could remain viable in the environment for days, which could lead to faecal-oral transmission, as seen with severe acute respiratory virus CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome CoV,” read the study.

Meanwhile, the house help of US-based positive couple, who lives in a slum in Mumbai, has tested negative twice. Her nine close contacts have also tested negative.