Mumbai recorded 16 COVID-19 related deaths on Sunday, its highest so far. Most of the deceased had co-morbidities. The city also recorded 152 new cases.
According to State government figures, the total number of cases in the city is 1,298. The virus has claimed 92 people in Mumbai so far. Of the 16 deaths, six were on Sunday, nine on Saturday and one on Friday, but they were all recorded on Sunday.
According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), 15 of the 16 had co-morbidities and one had the “age-related factor.” While diabetes and hypertension were the most common factors, alcoholic liver disease and ischemic heart disease also contributed to the deaths.
In at least five cases, death occurred on the very next day of admission. However, a 41-year-old man who was admitted to Kasturba Hospital on April 7 and died on April 11 had neither advanced age nor other health issues.
The BMC said 26 patients have recovered and have been discharged.
Wadala reported 14 new cases on Sunday, all of which were in the Sangam Nagar slum, which had earlier reported one positive case.
“After the first case, we held a fever camp at Sangam Nagar wherein we found 14 people to be positive. Their 45 high-risk contacts have been quarantined. The entire area has been disinfected and sealed,” said Gajanan Bellale, assistant commissioner of F North ward, which now has 41 cases.
Dadar reported two new cases on Sunday. One of them is a 52-year-old woman from Ambedkar Nagar, while another is a 48-year-old man from Kasarwadi chawl. The man, a JCB operator, has a son who worked in Sushrusha Hospital, which has reported eight cases.
The BMC releases a ward-wise breakup of the cases in Mumbai a day late. However, this is the only area-wise reference available.
According to Saturday’s 24-hour report, the increase in the number of cases in Worli’s G South ward had relented. The ward reported only three more cases, going from 243 to 246.
‘Aggressive testing’
Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray said, “Basically the increase is from the quarantine we had made and the areas we had sealed off. And all (cases) are asymptomatic. In fact, 10 teams of doctors are aggressively doing fever screening. Also, the sudden spike that day was because of the huge number of tests in the quarantine. But it exactly proves that tracing was on track, as were fever surveys.”
Mr. Thackeray said the government wants to conduct fever screening across Mumbai and Pune.
The other ward that showed a spike was E ward (Mumbai Central, Agripada). “Of the 231 high-risk contacts of earlier patients identified, only 40 to 45 have been tested so far. I ramped up testing, which is why the figures are higher,” assistant municipal commissioner, D ward Prashant Gaikwad, who is also in-charge of E ward, said.
In D ward (Tardeo, Malabar Hill), cases jumped to 94 from 66 and in L ward (Kurla, Saki Naka) cases jumped to 57 from 31 by Saturday.
BMC officials have attributed the rise to ramped-up testing wherein fever clinics are being opened and health camps being held to look for any new patients.
