22 March,2020 04:51 AM IST | Mumbai | Prajakta Kasale
With the city on partial lockdown, JJ Flyover barely saw vehicular movement on Saturday. Pic/Suresh Karkera
The number of corona patients increased sharply on Saturday, after 12 new cases of COVID 19 were reported in the state. Of these, eight patients are from Mumbai, one from Kalyan, two from Pune and one from Yavatmal. While six of the patients from the city have international travel history, the remaining two travelled to Delhi and Gujarat, and had no close contact with anyone from outside the country. State Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Saturday said, "Of these two patients one is an employee of the Mumbai Airport." Daksha Shah, deputy health executive officer of BMC, said that work to track the transmission is currently on.
In Pune too, a 41-year-old woman who was tested positive, didn't have any travel history. A central team from the Health Ministry is in Pune, and is tracing the transmission, confirmed Pune Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar.
Since the number of patients doubled in Mumbai in a single day, authorities on Saturday launched a slew of measures to ensure speedy diagnosis. The BMC has started OPDs to screen corona patients at both public and private hospitals. The public hospitals include KEM, Nair, Sion, Cooper, Rajawadi, HBT and Bhabha (in Bandra and Kurla). "We have started the OPDs to ease the burden on Kasturba Hospital and to reduce the waiting time of people," said Dr Hemant Deshmukh, dean of KEM.
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The private hospitals include Lilavati, HL Reliance, Hinduja, Fortis, BPT, Jaslok, Nanavati and Raheja. These hospitals have also started OPDs with isolation facility.
The civic body's helpline, 1916, has been ringing incessantly over the last few days. Citizens have been making calls about 'suspected' cases, reporting incidents of people coughing and sniffing in public places. The number of calls in the last two weeks have gone beyond 10k. Earlier, the helpline received around 400 to 500 calls daily, but the number has doubled this week.
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