Ten Coronavirus cases in Maharashtra, Budget session may be curtailed

Two persons from Mumbai on Wednesday tested positive for coronavirus, taking the number of such cases in Maharashtra to 10, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said.

There are eight coronavirus positive cases in Pune, the chief minister told reporters at Vidhan Bhawan.

Thackeray also indicated that the ongoing budget session of state legislature, scheduled till March 20, may be curtailed in view of the coronavirus situation.

Health officials said the two persons from Mumbai who tested positive for coronavirus had come in close contact with two Pune residents who had returned from Dubai recently and tested positive for coronavirus.

A statement by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme of the Public Health Department, Maharashtra said an "aggressive contact tracing activity" is in progress on a war footing after two Dubai returnees from Pune were found positive for positive coronavirus two days ago.

"On Wednesday, two close contacts of these persons from Mumbai were found positive. Both are co-passengers of the index cases and part of the Dubai tour troup," it said.

"Till Wednesday, 1,38,968 travelers from 1195 flights have been screened at Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur international airports. As per the new guidelines from central government, travelers coming from all countries are being screened at international airports," it said.

The Bureau of Immigration is regulary providing list of all passengers coming from high risk countries like Iran, Italy and South Korea for necessary follow up, it said.

All travelers who have come after February 21 from these three countries are being followed by Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme functionaries, it said.

"Field surveillance is also actively going on all across the state in search of people coming from the Corona affected areas. Till today, the state has 635 travelers coming from coronavirus-affected areas.

"From January 18 till date 349 symptomatic travelers have been isolated in identified isolation facilities. At present 18 travelers are still in hospital at Pune while 15 at Mumbai," it said.

Suspected cases have also been isolated at Nagpur and Pimpri Chinchwad, the statement said.

"To increase surge capacity and for future preparedness, the state has established isolation wards in all district hospitals and government medical colleges. As of today, the state has 502 isolation beds available," it said.

"All international travelers are being screened at airports and all symptomatic travelers are referred to identified isolation wards.Asymptomatic travelers coming from 12 countries (China, Honkong, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Iran and Italy) are being referred to IDSP for regular follow up for 14 days," it said.

Till Wednesday, of the 635 travelers, 370 have completed their follow-up of 14 days, it said.

Apart from Mumbai, Pune and Thane travelers are also being monitored in Gadchiroli, Nanded, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Nagpur, Wardha, Sangli, Ahmednagar, Amaravati, Palghar, Jalgaon, Chandrapur and Satara districts, it said.