MUMBAI: At least 70 coronavirus positive patients have disappeared from Mumbai over the last three months and the city's civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, has sought police's help over it.
“These patients belonged to the BMC’s P ward (Malad area), part of Mumbai suburbs. The patients switched off their mobile phones hence tracking them is turning out to be difficult. This locality was marked as emerging Covid 19 positive patient’s locations. The BMC has sought the police help to locate these missing patients,” said a senior official.
And as Mumbai continues to observe a surge in coronavirus cases with over 67,000 cases, the BMC has also taken to door-to-door testing in containment zones to curb community spread.
“We have submitted the mobile number, Aadhar card’s photocopies and other details to police so they it will be easy for them to find out these missing patients. This information were collected during the test of these patients. The phones IMEI number may be used by police to trace the patients.
"Once the patients are traced they will send back to hospitals for further treatment. We have to also check whether they are in Mumbai or left the city or gone anywhere. We got the primary report that these were the migrant patients so they might have left the city as well,” said a civic official requesting anonymity.
Earlier, an 82-year-old woman who was tested positive had gone missing for over eight days in Jalgaon, and later she was found dead in the toilet of the same hospital.
After this incident, the three doctors including the dean of the concerned hospital were suspended for their negligence.
Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said an enquiry will be conducted for the missing patients and those accountable will be punished accordingly.