47 COVID-19 patients in Mumbai were referred by fever clinics

As many as 47 coronavirus cases out of the total 3,451 detected so far in Mumbai are of patients referred by fever clinics of the city civic body, an official said on Wednesday.

Mumbai is one of the worst coronavirus affected cities in the country as it has till now reported 3,451 COVID-19 cases and 151 deaths.

After the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) found a number of patients coming from slum areas, it set up some fever OPDs (Out Patient Departments) to reach out to a larger population.

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"A close analysis of the total cases from Mumbai revealed that most of the patients were already quarantined, while some 47 patients referred by the fever clinics later tested positive for coronavirus," a senior BMC official said.

"This is the main reason why we are still not calling it community spread because in most of the cases, contacts were traced," another official said.

The BMC-run small hospitals have an advantage of proximity. The doctors and patients there know each other. This helped the BMC to speak to people and locate some of those who had a mild fever, he said.

"These people were immediately isolated and 47 of them later tested positive for coronavirus. Contact-tracing also helped to a certain extent in containing the further spread of the disease, he said.

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Asked about patients who were already quarantined, the official said, "They were the obvious suspects because someone close to them earlier tested positive or died due to the COVID-19."

As a precautionary measure, they were kept in institutional quarantine and they subsequently tested positive, he said.