Mumbai gets third casualty; first eight COVID-19 patients discharged

Officials at the state health department stated that the 65-year old man had come to India seeking medical treatment. (File photo)

A 65-year-old man who died hours after he was admitted at Kasturba Hospital became the third casualty of Coronavirus in the city on March 23. While there were four new patients who tested positive in the city, eight patients who had earlier tested positive were discharged from Kasturba Hospital on Tuesday.

Civic officials said that the 65-year-old man was brought in on Monday with fever cough and breathlessness. "He had a history of hypertension and uncontrolled diabetes and was residing in Dubai. He came to Ahmedabad on March 15 and came to Mumbai on March 20. The patient was serious and inspite of all possible treatment, he died late evening on March 23," said Dr Daksha Shah, deputy executive health officer. She added that his test for COVID 19 was positive after his death. When contacted, Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner said that a team of civic officials are in touch with his relatives and they will hand over his body.

Officials at the state health department stated that the 65-year old man had come to India seeking medical treatment. "He owns a hotel in Dubai and he had come to Ahmedabad to visit a local doctor since he suffered from Spondylitis. He came to Mumbai for some work on March 20 after which he developed symptoms. He sought treatment in a private hospital for two days. When his condition got worse, he was taken to Kasturba Hospital," said the official.

For the first time, Kasturba Hospital discharged eight of the patients who had earlier tested positive for COVID 19 on Tuesday. While civic officials had earlier stressed on the need to complete the mandatory 14 day isolation period, on Tuesday they stated that all eight patients were symptomatic and had tested negative two consecutive times and were thus discharged. The first couple from western suburbs who had tested positive were also among those who were discharged. "Our children are very happy that we have reached home. Our maid hasn't come for so many days and my wife and I spent the rest of day cleaning our house," said the 70 year old man.

Meanwhile four other new cases were reported in the city and the count for Maharashtra reached 107. Two of the four cases had a history of international travel to Italy and Dubai. All four cases are from the suburbs and one of them is a senior citizen. In Mumbai, there have been a total of 58 cases of COVID 19. Apart from Mumbai, three new cases were reported from Pune, one from Ahmednagar and one from Satara.

The body of the 68 year old Philippines man who died on Monday was picked up by some local community members and civic officials said they were cremated in Govandi. Sources from Jaslok hospital said that the 37 year old man from Kalyan who was on a ventilator and was shifted to Jaslok Hospital from Kasturba Hospital, is now in a stable condition. "He earlier had to be intubated but on Tuesday he was taken off the ventilator. We are keeping him under close observation to see if he continues to be stable without the ventilator.

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