In a positive development, a repeat test of Maharashtra’s index patients — the Pune couple — came negative on Monday. Civic officials in Pune said that samples of the couple will be sent for testing again on Tuesday and if they are negative, the husband and wife will be discharged from the hospital.
The couple, who had travelled to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in a group of 40, was the first to test positive for COVID-19 on March 9. Chief Medical Officer of Pune Municipal Corporation, Dr. Ramchandra Hankare, said that the husband and wife have no symptoms. “If their second samples come negative, we will discharge them as per protocol and they will remain under home quarantine for another 14 days,” said Dr. Hankare. The couple was ecstatic when they were told about the negative reports by their doctors. “I can’t wait to go home. I don’t mind being home quarantined but I want to be at home,” the 42-year-old lady told The Hindu over phone.
Twelve COVID-19 patients admitted in Mumbai have tested negative in their two consecutive samples. “This a very good development as it means that the patients are on their way to recovery,” deputy executive health office Dr. Daksha Shah told The Hindu.
On Monday, 23 new cases of COVID-19 were reported from the State taking the total number to 97. The highest number of 13 cases was reported from Mumbai of whom 10 patients were contacts of the previous positive patients. According to Dr. Shah, 60% of the patients have mild symptoms. In Mumbai, a 37-year-old man who had a travel history to the U.S. remains on ventilator in a critical condition at Jaslok Hospital.
Sugar heartland
Meanwhile, the sugar heartland reported fresh cases on Monday with five people in Satara and Sangli districts testing positive.
Officials said a 45-year-old woman, hailing from Khandala in Satara, with a travel history to Dubai tested positive. The other four cases are members from one family — three male and one female — from Islampur tehsil in Sangli. All had a history of travel to Saudi Arabia. Additionally, one person each from Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan Dombivli also tested positive.
Earlier, another COVID-19 positive case was recorded in Pune city in the past 24 hours taking the total number of patients in Pune district, including Pimpri-Chinchwad, to 28.
According to district authorities, the new case is apparently another close contact of the 41-year-old city-based anganwadi worker with no history of foreign travel who had tested positive for the virus last week and is presently on ventilator support at the city’s Bharti hospital.
On Sunday, the four new cases which tested positive in Pune were close kin of this lady, one of whom is reportedly an IT professional, said authorities.
The lady, in her early 20s, is an employee of an IT major sited in Hinjewadi’s Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park.
On Sunday, an internal communication sent to that company’s employees said that the offices would be shut till Tuesday evening as a precautionary measure.
The company’s premises are being sanitised and fumigated.
The communication sent to employees by the company’s senior officials said, “We are writing to let you know that a positive case of COVID-19 was detected among one of our employees in Pune, today. While we are providing all support to the concerned employee, we are also working with the health authorities on contact tracing as well as subsequent actions needed.”
The e-mail further said that to avoid unnecessary panic, only those who had been identified as potential contacts had been communicated with and advised of next steps they need to take (administering self-quarantine for 14 days at home) and other measures communicated by the govt health advisory.
Meanwhile, the district health officials have also started tracking those who came in contact with the anganwadi worker during her various trips across the State.
The lady had travelled to Vashi in Navi Mumbai on March 3 to attend a wedding and returned to Pune in the same cab the following day.
Sources said that a few days later, she attended a Zilla Parishad function at a village in Velhe tehsil, around 50 km from Pune city.
After displaying virus-like symptoms like a sore throat and dry cough, she visited a general practitioner and despite remaining home for a brief period, ventured out again to Varasgaon, 60 km from Pune.
She was finally admitted to Bharti hospital on March 16 and her samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) to test for the H1N1 virus (swine flu). Instead, she tested positive for COVID-19 on March 20.
