Mumbai’s first coronavirus death is third in India

The city reported its first and India’s third novel coronavirus death on Tuesday morning, when a 64-year-old man admitted to Kasturba Hospital succumbed to the disease,

The city reported its first and India’s third novel coronavirus death on Tuesday morning, when a 64-year-old man admitted to Kasturba Hospital succumbed to the disease, while the Maharashtra government said it has not ruled out shutting down public transport, among other measures, to stem the spread of the pandemic.

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The state reported two more cases — one each in Mumbai and Pune — on Tuesday to raise its virus count to 41, highest in India, amid fears that Maharashtra is emerging as the country’s Covid-19 hotspot. The number of cases across India rose to 139.

While the cabinet decided against shutting down local trains and BEST buses, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray cautioned that if crowding in public places and transport did not reduce, the state will be compelled to shut down public transport. “Instead of shutting down public transport, we are appealing to people to not step out until it’s of utmost importance. We also appealed to the private sector to encourage employees to work from home... We are watching the situation very closely and if required, the decision [of shutting down public transport] may be taken in the next few days,” Thackeray said.

The state government also decided against granting a blanket week-long holiday to its 15-lakh workforce and instead, will call in only half staff, on the lines of the order issued for the private sector. This plan is likely to be chalked out in the coming two days, said public health minister Rajesh Tope.

Another minister, who did not want to be named, said that the government is considering either asking employees to attend office on alternate days or break the working hours into two shifts.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), in a statement, said the man who died had several comorbid ailments such as high blood pressure, pneumonia and inflammation of heart muscles. On Tuesday morning, his heart rate increased suddenly, which led to his death.

“He was doing well till Monday evening, but his condition suddenly started deteriorating from Tuesday. He was on ventilator,” said Dr Daksha Shah, deputy director, BMC health department.

Tthe BMC decided against a post-mortem for him as the cause of death was well established from the history of treatment. His last rites were performed at Shivaji Park crematorium on Tuesday evening. His body was directly taken to the ground for cremation without being taken to his home in Ghatkopar. His wife and son, who are also undergoing treatment at the hospital for Covid-19, weren’t allowed to participate in the last rites. His daughter and son-in-law attended the rites.

The patient was admitted to the privately run Hinduja Hospital on March 8 after he developed symptoms of coronavirus such as fever, cold and cough. According to hospital sources, he didn’t reveal to doctors that he had recently travelled to Dubai. Later, when the doctors got suspicious, they asked BMC to test his medical samples. On March 12, he tested positive for the virus when his condition was already critical.

He was shifted to Kasturba Hospital on March 13. He was given symptomatic treatment along with anti-HIV medicine lopinavir/ritonavir for recovery. But owing to his comorbid health issues, his condition deteriorated further.

“It was the decision of Hinduja Hospital to shift the patient for the safety of other patients in the hospital. When he was taken to Kasturba Hospital, he was already critical,” said a senior health officer.

However, questions are also being asked about the health facilities at the isolation ward of the hospital. Presently, the 100-bed isolation ward, which is fully occupied, now has only four ventilators and not a single intensive care unit (ICU).

When asked about it, Dr Shah said, “The hospital is providing the best facilities. All the doctors here are extremely qualified.” She also informed that 20 doctors, 41 nurses, along with 35 class III employees are working in three shifts round the clock to take care of admitted patients. At present, 14 patients are undergoing treatment at the hospital.

Of the two new cases in the state on Tuesday, one is a 49-year-old male who landed in Mumbai from the US on March 7 and soon developed flu-like symptoms. On March 16, he was admitted to the isolation ward of Kasturba Hospital. Four people who were in close contact with the infected patient have been advised admission, while another seven have been kept in home isolation for 14 days. The other case is from Pimpri-Chinchwad civic hospital, where a 26-year-old man who returned from the US on March 14 has tested positive for the virus.

CABINET discussion

On Tuesday, a section of cabinet members were of the opinion that public transport should be completely shut down to maintain social distancing to avoid the spread of the coronavirus. The ministers also said the government should shut its offices for at least seven days to set an example before the private sector and allow employees to work from home.

The bureaucracy and some ministers opposed the proposal for two reasons — it would lead to panic among the people and will hit the poor and traders in unorganised sectors very badly.

Tope said the decision of shutting down public transport was deferred to ensure that the poor people are not affected. He said that non-essential services have been requested to shut down for the next few days.

The state government is expected to chalk out a plan for its employees from the departments not involved in essential services by Wednesday.

“The employees from these departments will be asked to either report to the office on alternate days or work two shifts. The officials will be allowed to work from home when not in office,” said a minister on the condition of anonymity. A few employees unions have demanded shutting down government offices amid the coronavirus fear.

Thackeray also said in the absence of the permission from the Central government, they cannot allow the tests for the coronavirus infections to be conducted in private laboratories.

“Similarly, the testing kits, too, need to be authenticated by the Central government. We have demanded that the Centre to increase the number of kits allotted to us. We are augmenting the capacity of the government labs at Kasturba and other hospitals for the tests of the samples,” he said.

The CM has also appealed to devotees to not gather around places of worship and has requested religious leaders to appeal to people for the same.

Meanwhile, a tweet by housing minister Jitendra Awhad about the state cabinet’s decision of announcing holidays to the government offices for seven days created confusion among people.

The tweet stated that the cabinet has decided to keep government offices shut for the next seven days to avoid the spread of the coronavirus. Awhad later clarified that it was tweeted by a person handling his Twitter account.

“The person, who was in the team appointed to manage his social media during the elections, posted the message on Facebook. Since my Facebook account is linked to Twitter, it was posted on my handle. A case should be lodged against the person,” he said.

Also, the state election commission has announced to postpone the elections to 1,570 gram panchayats and a few by-polls to other rural local bodies indefinitely in the wake of the outbreak of the coronavirus in the state. The commission has also postponed the ongoing work of structuring of wards of district councils and panchayat samitis until further notice.

Meanwhile, the hearings of the Koregaon-Bhima Commission of Inquiry scheduled at Pune in the last week of March have been rescheduled.

The hearings will now be held in Mumbai from March 30 to April 4, the commission has stated.