The Coronavirus situation continued to be grim in Maharashtra on Monday, as two more died of the pandemic and 17 more persons tested positive for Covid-19 taking the total number of infected cases in the State to 220.
While an 80 year-old man died at a private hospital in Mumbai, a 52-year-old man died at a private hospital in Mumbai. With the latest deaths, the total number of Covind-19 deaths in the state climbed to ten in Maharashtra.
The person with acute respiratory distress, who had been admitted to a private hospital on March 27, died the following day. “He was a known case of hypertension and Iscyhemic heart disease. He was tested positive for Covid-19,” a medical bulletin released by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.
The total number of positive cases (220) reported by the State Health Department could be much higher as the BMC recorded as many as 47 cases on Monday as against eight cases that figured in the state health department's list. In effect, the total number of cases in the might go up to 259 cases if the BMC's figures are included.
Apart from testing positive for Covid-19, the man -- who died at a Pune Hospital -- was suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure.
With another 17 persons testing positive for Coronavirus in various parts of Maharashtra, the total number of infected cases rose further to 220. Of the fresh infected cases, Mumbai accounted for eight cases, while five positive cases were reported from Pune. Nagour reported two infected cases, while there was one case each in Nashik and Kolhapur.
State Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that as many as 39 persons, who had earlier tested positive for Covid-19 but recovered later, had been discharged from various hospitals till Monday.
“As many as 328 persons have newly been admitted to various hospitals in the state. Since January 18, 4538 people have been hospitalized in various isolation wards across the state owing to them developing symptoms such as fever, cold, cough etc. Out of the total admissions, 3876 laboratory samples were negative and 220 have been tested positive for coronavirus until today,” the minister said.
“As many as 19,161 people are home quarantined in the state, while 1224 people are in institutional quarantine centres,” the bulletin said.
Meanwhile, in a medical bulletin released by it, the BMC said that the private laboratories had diagnosed 18 patients between March 24 and 28. “As these 18 cases included in today, there appears to be a rise in cases. The rise is mainly due to vigorous contact tracing by health teams and enhanced testing in public and private labs, thereby ensuring proper preventive steps to control the spread of the disease,” the bulletin said.
“As a containment measure, areas surrounding the positive cases including one lakh houses and 3.87 lakh people have been surveyed. Apart from tracing the positive cases, the teams are also ensuring the home quarantining measures,” the medical bulletin added.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said that the stare government had set up 262 camps for migrants across the state as COVID-19 deaths touched 9 with another 215 positive cases.
“In these camps, we are currently housing 70,399 migrant labour/the homeless people and providing them food,” the chief minister said.
In a related development, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday decided to compulsorily cremate all victims of COVID-19 irrespective of their religions, to prevent risk infections even after death.
In an order issued today, Mumbai Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi lamented that the dead bodies of all COVID-19 victims must be cremated at the nearest crematorium irrespective of the religion to which they belong.
Justifying the mandatory cremation move, Pardeshi said that a religious community leader had brought to his notice that burial grounds for Muslim or Christians were located in densely populated localities of Mumbai, which posed a high risk of contamination to their surrounding community or residential areas.
Pardeshi also said that any rituals involving the touching of the body were barred and not more than five persons shall be permitted to attend any such funeral.
Among other things, the BMC banned the procedure of packaging the victim’s body in a plastic bag and burying it in a cemetery on the grounds that it would prevent early decomposition and the risk of the future spread of the Coronavirus would continue.
However, Pardeshi said that for those who insisted on holding the burial practice would be allowed provided they take the body out of Mumbai limits for the funeral rituals.
“For this, the family members of the deceased would have to make all arrangements including transportation and follow the relevant guidelines/precautions for the disposal of COVID-19 victims,” the Municipal Commissioner said.
“The concerned person would be fully responsible for his actions and those found flouting the directives would be liable for penal action,” Pardeshi said.
