Mumbai Nov 29 PTI At least 1000 travellers had landed in Mumbai in the last 15 days from African countries where the Omicron variant of coronavirus was detected a senior official said on Monday He said the Mumbai civic body collected swab samples of at least 100 travellers out of the 466 whose list was received so far Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani told PTI that the airport authority has informed that around 1000 travellers had landed in Mumbai from African countries in the last fortnight but it has handed over a list of only 466 such passengers so far Out of the 466 travellers 100 are from Mumbai We have already collected their swab samples By tomorrow or a day after tomorrow their reports are expected It will be clear if they are positive or negative to coronavirus Kakani said The World Health Organisation WHO had last week classified the Omicron as a variant of concern There wont be an issue if their test report is negative but the civic body is going to conduct genome sequencing of positive samples along with S-gene missing test that is advised by the WHO for faster detection of infection due to Omicron without genome sequencing he said If S-gene is missing in that case it is presumed that he traveller may be infected with Omicron Kakani said adding that the genome sequencing will confirm the infection Kakani said that infected travellers whether symptomatic or asymptomatic will be shifted to the civic bodys institutional quarantine facility at the civic-run Seven Hills Hospital in suburban Andheri According to Kakani amid rising concerns over Omicron the BMC has kept all the five hospitals and jumbo facilities ready Measures are being taken for the structural audit fire audit oxygen supply system audit besides for stocking adequate medicines and appointment of manpower Five jumbo centres are already functioning We have to upgrade the facilities One or two wards are already activated but as and when required we can activate more wards in the same jumbo facilities he added PTI KK NSK NSK

Mumbai Sep 18 PTI The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC has asked people to undergo COVID-19 test on returning to the city from their hometowns after the Ganpati festival as a precautionary measure an official said on Saturday The civic body has set up 266 centres offering free RT-PCR tests to people who have returned to Mumbai after celebrating Ganpati festival additional municipal commissioner western suburbs Suresh Kakani said The next 15 days are crucial The BMC has set up 266 centres offering free RT-PCR tests for those who have returned to Mumbai after the Ganpati festival People will get the test results delivered to their homes Kakni said Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar said People should take care as they would have come in contact with others at their hometowns There are testing centres which should be used by people Precautions will help prevent further spread of the infection Vaccines are available for everybody People should come forward to take the jab the mayor said Mumbai on Friday reported 434 fresh cases of COVID-19 and three casualties that took the tally of infections to 737164 and toll to 16042 The city currently has 4658 active cases PTI ND ARU ARU

To address the growing sex disparity in the population with regards to COVID vaccination, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) ordered a women only vaccination drive on Friday. The civic body ordered the city’s vaccination centers only to administer doses to women on Friday from 10:30 am to 6:30 pm. The BMC has chosen long hours […]

Mumbai Sep 16 PTI No Delta plus variant of COVID-19 considered highly contagious was found among 376 samples tested in the second round of genome sequencing in Mumbai a senior civic official said on ThursdayAdditional municipal commissioner western suburbs Suresh Kakani said the samples were examined at a genome sequencing facility inaugurated in the city last monthIn a statement issued by the BMC Kakani said The genome sequencing facility at civic-run Kasturba Hospital has tested 376 samples so far in second round Not a single sample was found with the Delta plus variant of COVID-19 However 304 samples had the Delta variant while two samples had 19A lineage and four 20A lineage The other 66 samples have prevalence of earlier strain of COVID-19 The Delta plus variant which is known for its higher transmissibility was not found in these samples he saidIn the first batch of genome sequencing 188 samples were tested of which 128 had the Delta variant while the remaining had standard COVID-19 strain the civic body said in the statementThe analysis of the first report is out which revealed that out of 128 samples 93 were from Mumbai Out of these 93 45 samples were of men and 48 were of women As many as 54 persons out of these 93 had to be hospitalized which in terms of percentage comes at 58 the statement saidThe remaining people had no symptoms it saidAmong the 93 persons 47 had taken at least one dose of vaccines against COVID-19 A further break-up stated that 27 persons had taken both doses of the vaccine while remaining got infected after receiving the first shotOnly four persons had to be put on oxygen support out of the 27 fully vaccinated people the statement saidAs many as 1194 people who had come in contact with these 93 persons from Mumbai were tested for COVID-19 Of these 80 people had contracted the infection the civic body said PTI ND RSY RSY

Mumbai (Maharastra) [India], August 31 (ANI): Daily testing for COVID-19 has been increased after a slight surge in fresh infections, an official informed on Tuesday.