Maharashtra confirms 2 more deaths, toll rises to 10

According to the state health department, the number of cases in the state rose to 220, with eight new cases in Mumbai on Monday. There is, however, a discrepancy between state and Mumbai civic body figures. The BMC reported 47 new cases. Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said the 47 cases include 18 results from private laboratories over the last four days. According to the state health department count, Mumbai has 92 cases, while according to BMC, the total Mumbai count is 126.

Anup Kumar Yadav, director, National Health Mission, said the private laboratory reports will be analysed before getting labelled as COVID-19 cases. State officials say once they screen all results of BMC listed cases, “the tally should match”. The 80-year-old man who died was admitted in Fortis hospital on March 27. He also suffered from hypertension and ischemic heart disease. He suffered acute respiratory distress and died on the evening of March 28. His swab sample tested positive for coronavirus a day later on March 29.

The 85-year-old woman who died in Hiranandani hospital had tested negative last week after her son (49) tested positive for COVID-19 after he returned from the US. The woman was discharged after testing negative. She suffered breathlessness last week and was rushed to Hiranandani hospital where she tested positive. BMC officials are yet to confirm her death was caused by coronavirus.

In Mumbai on Monday, several staffers from Jaslok hospital were quarantined after a patient admitted in the hospital tested positive. The patient had no travel history, no known contact with any confirmed case of coronavirus. He developed symptoms few days after hospitalisation. “All the medical and non-medical staff who came in direct or indirect contact with the affected patient have been identified and screened and quarantined as per protocol. We are initiating and activating utmost precautions to ensure safety and safe treatment to our patients, medical and non-medical community at the hospital,” a spokesperson from the hospital said.

The cases of people testing positive for coronavirus with no known link to a confirmed case are rising in Mumbai. At least 11 new patients, according to BMC, have no travel history or known contact with a confirmed case. Only three of the new cases had a travel history from UAE and Madrid.

In Nagpur, two more tested positive on Monday, the wife and brother of a patient who had tested positive on Sunday.

Panic in village after baker tests positive

Mumbai: The 6,700 residents of Pimpalgaon Najik, a village located 230 km north of Mumbai, were gripped by panic after a 30-year-old baker tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday night, becoming the first positive case in Nashik district.

Local authorities had a difficult time pacifying villagers, who demanded that all those who had been delivered bread by the baker be moved out of the village. “Villagers were of the view that he would have passed on the virus to many people,” district health officer Dr Dawa Salve said.

Police had to be called in to pacify the villagers. “We told the villagers that asking people to leave would cause a greater threat of the infection spreading. Finally, they were convinced,” Salve said.

Authorities claimed as per preliminary information gathered from the patient, he has had no history of travel. “The person runs a bakery and as per preliminary information has had no travel history. He had approached private hospitals on March 12 complaining of fever. He then moved to the Lasalgaon rural hospital on March 25 as he was not responding to treatment. He subsequently got himself admitted to Nashik civil hospital on March 27 from where his samples were sent for testing and he tested positive on Sunday evening,” Nashik district Collector Suraj Mandhare said.