With confirmed cases in Maharashtra rose to 42, but now new case of coronavirus were reported from Mumbai on Wednesday. Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani told PTI that the number of COVID-19 cases remained constant in the metropolis with no fresh case being detected till 11 am.
Until now, 15 COVID-19 cases have been found in Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these cases are being treated at the civic-run Kasturba Hospital.
While the confirmed cases of coronavirus are on the rise, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday that said seven more laboratories will come up across the state for testing suspected novel coronavirus cases. At present, only three labs are operating in the state at Mumbai, Nagpur and Pune where samples of suspected persons are tested.
Here are latest updates on coronavirus from Mumbai:
1. In view of the novel coronavirus outbreak, IIT Bombay has announced a virtual shutdown of its campus at Powai here till March 31. In the Tuesday night decision, the IIT-B decided to ask students to vacate hostels by March 20 evening.
“An emergency meeting of all heads of departments and other academic and administrative units was called on Tuesday to take stock of the situation on the campus, arising out of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. “This was particularly needed in view of the increasingly stringent measures being taken by MCGM (Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai) and the state administration, to control the spread of the virus,” said an official statement issued by Subhasis Chaudhuri, Director, Indian Institute of Technology B.
2. The Mumbai police has been asked to shut pubs, dance bars, discotheques and similar establishments in the city till March 31 in view of the coronavirus outbreak, an official said on Tuesday. The police are taking every possible precautionary measure to prevent crowding in public places, he added.
3. In the wake of coronavirus outbreak, the University of Mumbai on Tuesday informed students, research supervisors, and other concerned stakeholders that the open defense vivas scheduled or to be scheduled till March 31 have been postponed till further notice.
4. The Central Railway on Tuesday vinyl wrapped a 12-car local train with an awareness message about COVID-19 to sensitise Mumbaikars about the viral outbreak.
5. With coronavirus positive cases on the rise in Maharashtra, the BMC on Monday asked private and public sector companies to encourage their employees to work from home. A circular issued by the municipal commissioner also said non-essential service provider companies should work with 50 per cent staff capacity, making their staff to work in rotation.
6. The Western Railway and Central Railway on Tuesday hiked platform ticket rates from the present Rs 10 to upto Rs 50 to discourage unnecessary crowding at stations in view of the coronavirus scare. “#COVID19 preventive measures. Central Railway on its Mumbai, Pune, Bhusaval, and Solapur divisions increased the platform ticket from Rs 10 to Rs 50 till further advice,” tweeted Central Railway.
7. A facility, which can test 150 samples per day, will be set up at KEM Hospital in the city from Wednesday. The facility will start functioning once the Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV) aproves findings of its samples, officials told PTI.
8. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday asked shop owners who provide non-essential services in Mumbai to remain shut for few days.