Coronavirus: At Mumbai’s Kasturba hospital, travellers make a beeline

On Thursday, Kasturba hospital admitted 27 people. (Express Photo)

IN KASTURBA hospital — Mumbai’s nodal centre for treating and testing coronavirus — a stream of people with recent international travel history are making a beeline to see a doctor. Since January 17 till Thursday, 652 people who were recently abroad have been monitored for symptoms of the virus at the hospital. On Thursday evening, over two dozen such travellers queued at the hospital, each wearing a mask, holding a sanitiser in hand, waiting for their turn to meet the doctor.

“I was slated to undergo a surgery today in Wockhardt hospital, but the doctors asked me to get a clearance certificate from Kasturba hospital though I don’t have any symptoms,” said a Muscat resident, who arrived in Mumbai on March 5. He reached the Kasturba hospital on Thursday evening and was told he does not need to undergo testing. “But no clearance certificate is being provided if tests have not been conducted,” he added.

A Kandivali resident, who arrived in Mumbai from Dubai on March 4, said his residential society urged him to get himself tested. “I had no symptoms so the doctor said no test is required. But he asked me to remain in home isolation for 14 days.” Since Kasturba hospital is not providing a certificate clearing a person of the infection, he took a selfie outside the hospital to prove that he had visited the doctor.

The hospital plans to scale up its isolation facility to 130 beds. On Thursday, it admitted 27 people. Test reports of 20 suspected cases remain pending, said Dr Daksha Shah, deputy executive health officer in BMC.