Mumbai: COVID-19 death toll rises to 65; count of patients 775
Mumbai, Apr 9 () Nine coronavirus patients died inMumbai on Thursday, taking the death toll due to the deadlyinfection in the city to 65, the Brihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) said.
Seventy-nine persons tested positive for COVID-19during the day, taking the number of such cases in thecountry's financial capital to 775, the civic body said.
Six patients were discharged after recovery, it said.
So far 65 coronavirus patients have been dischargedfrom hospitals in the city.
Mumbai is one of the hotspots of COVID-19 as largenumber of people tested positive on the city and the civicbody has created 381 containment zones to contain the spreadof the virus.
Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar said the number ofCOVID-19 positive cases have dropped after witnessing a risefor two days.
"It is due to the door-to-door screening of peoplefrom areas, where COVID-19 patients were found, that thenumber of positive cases has gone down at Koliwada and otherareas of the city," she said.
A senior BMC official said the city will soon get13,000 new personal protective equipment (PPE) suits, whichwill be brought in a flight.
The BMC sources said that a nurse at Sion Hospital anda doctor tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.
Four new positive cases, including a 70-year-oldpatient who died at KEM Hospital, tested coronavirus positivefrom Dharavi, taking the tally of such patients from the slumto 17, a BMC official said.
Meanwhile, the civic body has decided to keep all theshops, excluding medical shops, shut in the 10 containmentzones spread over Dharavi, Dadar and Mahim.
The BMC claimed that it has surveyed more than 15 lakhpeople through health teams so far and identified 2,806 highrisk contacts, which are referred for testing and also 1,500samples collected through five teams by home visits.
"Because of vigorous action in a containment zone andtimely quarantine of contacts, reduction in cases in theseareas is seen," the BMC said.
It said that clinics have been set up on the peripheryof the containment zones, where doctors, nurses and labtechnicians, are deployed.
"Forty Such clinics have been set up till April 8and442 swabs have been collected from the suspected cases," thecivic body said. KK KRKNP NP