Coronavirus is spreading like wildfire with cases rising in each and every state of the country and across the world. As the cases are rising in Mumbai, Health minister Rajesh Tope earlier on Saturday evening announced that shopping malls and schools across the state will remain closed till the month-end. Late Saturday night, state disease surveillance officer Dr. Pradip Awate informed that five persons from the Pimpri-Chinchwad area near Mumbai had tested positive for the virus. All in all, 31 coronavirus cases have been detected in Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, and Yavatmal.
The state government also issued a directive that all schools and colleges in areas of municipal corporations, municipalities and Nagar panchayats shall remain closed till March 31.
Tope also said that examinations of classes one to nine will be postponed if they are being held currently, only the std 10th and 12th board exams will take place as per the schedule.
Four of them had come in contact with a group that had returned from Dubai. Some members of this group have already tested positive. Another person had visited Thailand recently, Dr. Awate added. It took the number of coronavirus patients in the Pune area to 15 and that in Maharashtra to 31.
Health minister Rajesh Tope earlier on Saturday evening announced that shopping malls across the state will remain closed till the month-end. Grocery stores that sell commodities of daily need will remain open, he said.
Of the new patients confirmed in Mumbai, one is resident of the city while others are from Kamothe, Vashi and Kalyan, all peripheral towns. All are admitted to Kasturba Hospital here and their condition is stable, BMC deputy director, health, Daksha Shah said.
Earlier in the day, two persons who had recently returned from Dubai were confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal city. Thus, so far across the state, fifteen coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Pune, eight in Mumbai, four in Nagpur, two in Yavatmal and one in Thane and Ahmednagar.
Some of the persons who tested positive have a history of traveling to the United States, Dubai, France, the Philippines, and Qatar, a health department statement said.
Sixteen of the confirmed Covid-19 patients had returned from Dubai, four from the USA, one each from France and the Phillipineswhile four had no foreign travel history but had come in contact with other infected persons, he said.
Source: PTI
Posted in News, States
