Maha govt to ‘chase the virus’ in Mumbai

■ 15 close contacts of patients to be forcibly quarantined

To curb the spread of coronavirus in Mumbai, the Maharashtra government has decided to implement a new drive called ‘chase the virus’, with an emphasis on contact tracing. Under this drive, institutional quarantine of 15 people, who are in close contact with a Covid19 patient, will be done forcibly.

State chief secretary Ajoy Mehta said that we have managed to break the coronavirus chain due to the emphasis on contact tracing. To make it more effective, chase the virus drive will be implemented in Mumbai.

Mumbai is the worst coronavirus affected city in Maharashtra with 31,789 patients and 1,065 deaths so far.

Of them, 22,000 patients are undergoing treatment, whereas 8,400 patients have been discharged after recovery.

Iqbal Singh Chahal, the chief of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), said that they are planning to reduce the death rate in Mumbai from 3.2 to 3.

“For the implementation of ‘chase the virus’ drive, community leaders will be appointed, who will carry out various responsibilities like providing information of comorbid patients, ensuring delivery of food to people in institutional quarantine, opening of private hospitals etc. For this, a warroom has been opened in every ward,” he said.

According to state officials, due to several measures taken to curb the spread of coronavirus, the doubling rate of Covid-19 patients has been reduced to 14 days.

The death rate has also now been reduced to 3.25 from 7.6 in April.

“The doubling rate of Covid-19 patients was earlier 14 days, but now we have managed to bring it down to three days. It happened due to the public awareness and the lockdown,” said Mr Mehta.

In Maharashtra, 54,758 patients have been found from March 9, of which 16,954 patients have been discharged after the recovery and treatment of 36,004 patients is underway.

The total deaths in the state is 1,792.