MUMBAI: The coronavirus tally in the city shot up to 14,781 on Tuesday with the detection of 426 new cases, while the toll rose to 556 with 28 more deaths, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.
The BMC said civic-run hospitals, including KEM and Nair, have started administering a new medicine, tocilizumab (an injection), to help improve the health condition of severe COVID-19 patients and claimed the result has been encouraging.
It said 613 new suspected coronavirus patients were admitted at various hospitals in the metropolis, the worst hit by COVID-19 in Maharashtra.
Also, 203 more patients recovered from the disease and discharged from hospitals, taking the number of such people to 3,313, it said.
According to a BMC release, 1,006 patients have been discharged so far from civic-run Seven Hills Hospital in suburban Marol, which has a capacity of 898 beds.
The hospital's bed capacity will be increased to 1,300 soon, the civic body said.
The BMC said of the 28 fresh deaths due to COVID-19, 17 patients had co-morbidities.
The use of tocilizumab in COVID-19 patients who are in serious condition has been encouraging, the civic body said.
"It has been used in approximately 40 severe COVID patients so far. Encouraging results were seen in more than 30 patients and 14 such patients have recovered and discharged," said the release.
The civic body claimed the medicine has improved the condition of patients, prevented patients from going on a ventilator and also aided in their recovery.
According to the BMC, this drug has been used based on the experience of many physicians and hospitals world over.
Meanwhile, the BMC has decided to pay an "encouragement allowance" of Rs 500 to each employee who wraps the bodies of COVID-19 patients in plastic sheets.
Usually, two persons are required to wrap one body.
Mumbai COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 14,781, new cases 426, discharged: 3313, deaths, 556, active cases 10,912.
Individual interest must yield to the larger public interest and if a situation like the outbreak of a contagious epidemic demands, then mass quarantining is permissible, the Bombay High Court said on Tuesday.
Justice A S Kilor of the Nagpur bench of the HC was hearing a petition filed by local resident Mohammad Nishat claiming that Nagpur civic authorities had illegally detained 1,408 people from Satranjipura and Mominpura areas on the ground that they were high-risk contacts of COVID-19 patients.
According to the petitioner's advocate, Tushar Mandlekar, the authorities randomly picked 1,408 people and, thus, violated prescribed protocols and guidelines issued by the Union government and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Mandlekar argued only persons found to be coronavirus positive or their high-risk contacts can be detained and quarantined for 14 days.
He said these 1,408 people do not fall under these categories and, hence, detaining them amounts to infringement of their fundamental rights, he said.
The civic authorities, however, refuted the claims and said only high-risk contact persons were sent to quarantine facilities.
The court in its order noted that it was of the prima facie opinion that the contention raised in the petition is without any substance.
"Inconvenience of some should be bypassed for a larger interest or cause of the society," the court said.
"Time is of the essence in a quarantine situation, perhaps the best way in the present unprecedented situation to balance conflicting interests between individual's rights and public health is to allow for immediate quarantine for preventing spread of contagious and infectious COVID-19," it said.
"I am of the prime facie view that if the situation so demands and the extreme outbreak of a contagious disease is established by the authorities, then mass quarantining is permissible in the interest of larger society," the court said.
The court noted that from May 5, when the petition was heard, and till date, the number of COVID-19 patients in Nagpur had reached 298 from 156.
"Those persons who have tested positive are mostly those who have been quarantined.
Of these, 99 COVID-19 positive patients are from the Satranjipura area, whereas 139 are from Mominpura area.
It is pertinent to note that the population of these two hotspots is more than three lakh," the court said.
"In such contingency, when an extreme outbreak of especially a contagious disease like coronavirus is being posed as a threat to public, safety and security of the general public is of paramount importance," Justice Kilor said.
The bench noted that if the behaviour or movement of any individual poses a significant risk or harm to themselves or their community, then, to control the threat, if the authorities act in larger interest, then people cannot claim to enjoy the right to movement free from any interference.
"In such a situation, rights of citizens would always be subject to reasonable restrictions," the court said.
The court further held that if the authorities had not taken the measures of institutional quarantine of high-risk contacts from Satranjipura and Mominpura areas of Nagpur, then the number of COVID-19 cases would have climbed further as these two areas are highly congested and densely populated.
"Even though quarantine is a curtailment of civil liberties, measures taken to quarantine persons from these two areas cannot be termed as to negate right to life, but in fact it will only protect right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution for achieving a larger public interest," the court said.
The bench has, however, ordered for an expert committee to be set up to give an opinion on the petitioner's contention that quarantine facilities at MLA Hostel and the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) hostel were not as per guidelines issued by the Union government.
The court said authorities shall ensure the persons quarantined shall have enough supply of basic needs and proper hygiene and be updated about their health regularly.