With 308 new cases, the total number of COVID-19 patients in Mumbai touched 3,032 on Monday. The city also recorded seven more deaths taking the tally to 139. A month since the State went into lockdown on March 20, the numbers continue to increase rapidly raising concerns about widespread infection within the community.
The city’s case fatality rate, however, has seen a decline in the last few days. On Monday, it slumped to 4.5% as compared to 6.5% the previous week. The decreased rate has been attributed to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s strategy of auditing all deaths before simply labelling them as COVID-19 deaths.
The seven deaths recorded on Monday include that of a 25-year-old man at Kasturba Hospital with no co-morbid conditions — the second such case in the city. The other six victims are all senior citizens, except a 56-year-old woman, and had co-morbidities.
Meanwhile, the civic-run Nair Hospital on Monday got a plasmapheresis machine to facilitate a trial on convalescent plasma therapy. The therapy entails separating the plasma of recovered COVID-19 patients, which is rich in anti-bodies, to treat other patients.
“Those patients who have completed four weeks after discharge are eligible to donate,” said Dr. Jayanthi Shastri, head of microbiology at Nair Hospital.
The BMC has made a list of 70 eligible donors and is in the process of reaching out to them. Last week, a 37-year-old man donated blood for the trial. “With this machine, we can take the plasma from the donor instead of taking blood and later separating the plasma,” said Dr. Shastri. The process to get an approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is underway.
53 journalists test positive
On Monday, 53 media persons including photographers, TV journalists and camera persons tested positive. BMC’s health committee member Amey Ghole said 167 scribes were tested last week at a special two-day camp, and 53 were found positive. Of these, 21 have very mild symptoms and were being sent to isolation facilities. Those who are asymptomatic were being moved to a hotel in Goregaon.
Published - April 21, 2020 12:28 am IST