The coronavirus claimed one more life in Maharashtra taking the total number of deaths in the State to five, even as the total number of patients testing positive for the pandemic rose to 125 in the State on Thursday.
On a day when the Maharashtra announced that it had permitted owners of the shops vending essential commodities to keep their establishment open for all 24 hours in a day, the state health authorities confirmed that a 65-year-old woman died at Navi Mumbai’s General Hospital on Tuesday night.
“After undergoing treatment at two private hospitals, a 65-year-old patient was admitted to the General Hospital at in a critical condition on the afternoon of March 24 (Tuesday). She died on the same night. The laboratory reports confirmed yesterday that she died because of Coronavirus,” a medical bulletin put out by the Public Health Department of the Maharashtra Government under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) said.
“We are trying to ascertain if the deceased had either history of international travel or had she contracted Coronavirus through some contacts,” the bulletin added.
With the latest death, the total number of Covid-19 deaths in the state has risen to five. The coronavirus had claimed first life in the state on March 17, when a 63-year-old disease-infected had died at the Kasurba Hospital. Subsequently, another 63-year-old male patient, who had been admitted to private hospital in Mumbai died on March 19. On Sunday night, Filipino died at a private hospital late on Sunday night. Later on Monday evening, a 65-year-old COVID-19 patient died at Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai.
According to the medical bulletin, three more patients – one patient each from Mumbai, Sindhudurg and Nagpur – tested positive for Covid-19. “The infected patient from Sindhudurg had travelled along with another Covid-19 positive patient in railway compartment. The infected person from Nagpur had travelled to Delhi, but it is not confirmed yet that he had history of international travel.
There was confusion in the total number of patients who tested positive for Coronavirus. In the morning, State Health Minister Rajesh Tope tweeted: “The current count of COVID19 patients in the state of Maharashtra is 124. Yesterday evening, 1each in Mumbai & Thane such 2 patients have been identified as positive. 15 people from these have been recovered and are discharged from the respective hospitals”.
Later in the evening, the Public Health Department of the Maharashtra Government reported that there were three Covid-19 positive cases in the state on Thursday.
However, the Public Health Department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in its medical bulletin issued in the evening said that there were 15 positive cases during the day. Of the 15 cases, there were six cases from Mumbai and one case from the city, all of which were because of “close contact” with Covid-19 contracted patients, while the remaining eight confirmed cases were from Dombivili (1), Navi Mumbai (1), Thane (2), Vashi (1), Mumbai (1), Mumbai suburbs (1) and Pune (1). All these patients had bene admitted to Kasturba Hospital and were diagnosed as positive in the laboratory there.
Meanwhile, the BMC reported that as many as 10 Covid-19 patients had recovered and were discharged from the hospital.
Meanwhile, in an effort to reduce inconvenience caused to the citizens who venture out to make purchase of essential commodities, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced that his Government had permitted the owners of the shops selling essential commodities to keep their establishment open for all 24 hours in a day.
“Owing to lockdown, people are contributing to crowds outside shops selling essential commodities which was not advised from the point of view of their health. That’s why we have asked the shopkeepers to keep their establishments open for 24 hours in a day,” Uddhav said.
“Similarly, staff members in the shops should take precautions about their health. Both the customers and members should maintain distance suggested under the social distancing measure,” the chief minister said.