Less than a fortnight after he took over the reins of the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC), civic chief Dr Vijay Rathod has decided to self-quarantine himself on Tuesday, sources said. The civic chief’s decision apparently followed after one of his deputies who handled the health department tested positive for the infection.
The civic chief had accompanied senior municipal officials including his deputy during field visits to identify locations for setting up health care facilities. The deputy municipal commissioner who has tested positive was regularly attending office till Tuesday, hours before the arrival of his swab test report.
While more than a dozen municipal employees including senior officials have tested positive so far, a clerk attached to the health department succumbed while undergoing treatment for Covid-19 at a private hospital on Wednesday.
As the total number of cumulative positive Covid-19 patients breached the 4,800 mark, the doubling rate has also gathered speed by dipping to 15 days exposing the grim health scenario of the twin-city. However the civic administration maintains that the doubling rate was higher as per government guidelines which mandates counting and calculation on the basis of figures registered every Monday.
While the case fatality rate (CFR) stands at 3.71 percent, the recovery rate hovers a little over 73 percent as a total of 3390 have so far recovered from the virus pulling down the number of active cases to 1,071.
The MBMC has intensified its efforts by launching a rigorous contact tracing campaign to prevent the spread of the virus and contain the death rate.
