Mumbai recorded 1,117 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, pushing its tally to 42,216. The city also recorded 49 fatalities, the third-highest jump in a day, taking its death toll to 1,368. Of the latest victims, 34 were men and 14 were women, and 42 had co-morbidities.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials on Tuesday said patients are winning the battle against COVID-19 despite having co-morbidities and being advanced in age. They cited the example of three patients with hypertension — aged 72, 70 and 76 — admitted to Nair hospital, who recovered from the virus and were discharged. “They had acute respiratory distress. All three were given oxygen support along with antibiotics, steroids and other standard treatment,” said a BMC official.
Drug proving effective
In two other cases, including a healthcare professional with poorly controlled diabetes, proper treatment and management of symptoms led to their recovery. “The healthcare professional received an injection of tocilizumab and recovered in eight days,” said the official. Tocilizumab is an arthritis drug which has been repurposed for COVID-19 treatment. At Nair hospital, of the 120 patients who received the drug, 108 recovered.
Officials said nearly 500 critical patients were admitted to the hospital between March and May. So far, the condition of 250 patients has improved and 110 have been discharged. Civic officials reiterated that all patients don’t need hospitalisation. “Patients with mild symptoms and without co-morbidities can remain in home isolation,” a BMC official said.
BMC’s ward-wise break-up of cases issued on June 1 shows K East ward’s (Andheri East) tally has leaped from 2,292 cases on May 31 to 2,402. Cases in M East ward (Deonar, Govandi) rose to 2,047. The case growth rate in the city has dropped from 3.85% on Monday to 3.68% on Tuesday. The highest case growth rate has been observed in Dahisar (8.1%) and P North ward (6.9%), while E ward (Byculla) had the slowest growth rate at 2%. Dharavi reported 25 new cases on Tuesday, pushing its tally to 1,830. The area has reported 70 deaths so far.
(With inputs from Tanvi Deshpande)
