In a significant development that came on a day when Mumbai and twin townships of Vasai andVirar in the neighbouring Palghar district recorded eight fresh cases of Omicron, the Birhanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday sealed four buildings at Bandra and Khar in north-west Mumbai after Bollywood actresses Kareena Kapoor and Amrita Arora tested Covid-19
Bollywood went into a tizzy after the civic administration sealed buildings “Satguru Sharan” where Kareena Kapoor lives, “Sarkar Heritage” where Amrita Arora has a flat, Karan Johar’s Residency Building and Kiran Apartments, where Seema Khan lives.
In addition, the BMC also organised Covid-19 testing camps at these buildings, as a precautionary measure. The BMC’s the BMC H-West ward officials sanitised the four buildings.
Kareena and Amrita tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday, within days after they had attended a private party hosted at his home by Karan Johar. The two actresses, who showed mild Covid-19 symptoms on being diagnosed positive for the pandemic, have quarantined themselves in the flats of their sealed buildings.
Meanwhile, the BMC health officials have traced at least three dozen contacts of the celebrities who attended party at Karan Johar’s home on Wednesday. Their swab samples have been sent for tests and the reports are expected.
It is not clear yet whether Seema Khan, wife of actor Sohail Khan, who was among the celebrities that attended Karan Johar’s party, has tested positive or otherwise. However, party host Karan Johar has tested negative for Covid-19.
With no let up in the incidence of Covid-19 variant, Mumbai and the twin townships of Vasai-Virar in neighbouring Palghar district have recorded eight fresh cases of Omicron, taking the total number of cases in the 28.
Of the fresh Omicron cases reported on Tuesday, Mumbai recorded a maximum of seven cases, while Vasai-Virar townships registered one case. Of the eight cases, three are women while five are men. However, none of the eight infected persons has an international travel history. Of them, one had gone to New Delhi, while another had visited Bengaluru.
The eight newly Omicron infected persons are aged between 24 and 41 years. “Of them, three are asymptomatic, while five others are showing mild symptoms. While two of them are in hospital and 6 are at home in isolation. The close contacts of these eight patients are being traced. Of them, seven infected persons have been vaccinated, while the remaining one has not been vaccinated yet”.
Of the 28 patients infected by Omicron virus in the state, Mumbai accounts for a maximum of 12, Pimpri Chinchwad comes close second with 10 and Pune Municipal Corporation has recorded two cases. Kalyan Dombivali, Nagpur, Latur and Vasai Virar have registered one case each.
Meanwhile, the authorities said the total number of passengers who arrived at Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur airports since December 1 was 91,320 (13,615 from At-risk countries and rest 77,705 from other countries), while passengers whose RT-PC tests have been done are 15,621 (13,615 from high-risk countries and 2006 were other countries). Similarly, RT-PCR positive and samples sent for genomic sequencing was 38 (30 at-risk countries and eight from other countries).
Additionally, field surveillance of all international passengers who have arrived since 1st November is underway.