Is Mumbai prepared to tackle Coronavirus?

With the novel Coronavirus COVID19 impacting people globally Mumbai has a mere 32 beds reserved for quarantine patients in Kasturba Hospital and 20 beds in the trauma hospital in Jogeshwari East Experts say that the city is lacking badly in medical preparedness Dr Wiqar Shaikh a senior physician and allergy specialist said We have a genuine problem at hand If there is a massive outbreak of COVID19 in India the fact is that we are not prepared to tackle it because we have a lot of issues with our existing medical infrastructureThere are no infectious diseases specialists infectious diseases wards or isolation wards in any of our medical colleges and hospitals Moreover does India have the capability to construct a new hospital in ten days as China did This is a serious concern Dr Shaikh saidPassengers arriving from China and Hong Kong are screened for Coronavirus at Kolkatas Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport PicAFP He added that tackling emergencies will be a mammoth task and there will be a high risk of infection and mortality This is a serious lacuna which needs to be corrected at the earliest We dont even have training programmes for infectious diseases like we do for other specialties For example in case of allergy experts take special training from international institutions to treat allergies Dr Shaikh saidGeneral consensus among experts is that there is no scientific evidence to prove that only symptomatic individuals are spreading the virusExperts say low number of quarantine facilities in city is matter of concern File picWe have more unanswered questions to tackle before we get into the debate on preparedness The three positive cases in Kerala were tackled well as everyone who came in contact with suspected patients was quarantined and the district hospitals had fullfledged isolation wards and trained staff But an outbreak in Mumbai Delhi Kolkata and Bengaluru will be a challenge said an expert on condition of anonymityCan COVID19 spread sexuallyQuestions like the presence of COVID19 virus in male genitalia chances of it spreading through sexually active infected men through sweat or tears of infected people are being raised in the science communityIs one negative throat swab good enough The question over an asymptomatic person shedding the virus for weeks does not have answers Another matter mdash which needs scientific verification mdash of concern is peoples travel history playing a role in spreading the virusWe are not even going through basic infectioncontrol practice training for which should be a continuous process We have studied six traces of COVID19 and the latest one is the seventh trace which became known to the world only after the outbreak in China an expert addedThe Chinese doctor Li Wenliang who first raised an alert about COVID19 in December and was killed by the virus a few weeks ago had tested negative for the virus six timesPeople would not voluntarily admit having come in contact with infected people or visiting affected countries Chances of the virus being misdiagnosed by general practitioners would be high as they may treat the patient for the common flu an expert saidVirus may die by MarchendTraces of COVID19 on things such as armrests doorknobs lift buttons cutlery items can remain viable for spreading for over 150 hours Experts dont know if these things are being looked intoDr Om Shrivastava an infectious disease expert at Jaslok hospital said We presume that by end of March when temperatures and humidity rise the virus will die But we will have to be watchful as these situations are projections based on current dataDilip Mehta President of the Pharmaceutical Wholesale Association told midday that the government has restricted the import of medical and surgical equipment from China A lot of it is procured by hospitals as it is cheaper Though there is no system to screen these products for COVID19 traces hospitals must sterilise equipmentThe daily production capacity for surgical masks is 20 lakh while exporters are demanding two crore surgical masks per day Enquiries are coming from Syria UK Thailand Singapore Honk Kong Iran etc Export has been restricted to help tackle a potential outbreak in India Mehta saidCurrently infrared thermometers are being imported from South Korea But since South Korea is also facing an outbreak import restrictions will follow Mehta said20 beds on standby in JogeshwariDr Padmaja Keskar BMCs Executive Health Officer said apart from the 32bed quarantine facility at Kasturba Hospital 20 beds are on standby at the Hindu Hruday Samrat Balasaheb Thackerey Trauma Care Municipal Hospital in Jogeshwari There have been over 10 suspected cases at Kasturba Hospital All tested negative and were discharged Keskar said Health officials are also calling people to enquire about patients with symptoms of viral infection Keskar addedProfessor G M Nair coordinator for the Institute of Advanced Virology at Thiruvanantapuram Kerala said Kerala has witnessed many outbreaks the most recent one being the Nipah virus with a nearly 63 per cent mortality rate Out of the 20 who tested positive 17 died In China the number of affected people is 80000 and deaths were around 2900 which a mortality rate of less than 25 per cent It could have been controlled had alarm bells rung earlier Nair saidThe governments Institute of Advanced Virology will begin in the next few months and the laboratory will be the first of its kind to carry out advanced research on the national and global impact of viral outbreaks20No of beds kept on standby to quarantine patients in Jogeshwaris trauma hospital150No of hours for which traces of COVID19 can remain active and spread through touchCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates