A 58-year-old assistant sub-inspector of police has died of Coronavirus in Maharashtra’s Solapur district, an official said on Thursday.
With this, five police personnel from the state have so far succumbed to the viral infection.
The cop, posted at Solapur MIDC police station, was admitted to the civil hospital on Tuesday after he tested positive for COVID-19 coronavirus. He died while undergoing treatment at the hospital on Wednesday.
Earlier in April, Mumbai Police had asked their personnel who are above 55 years of age and having some pre-existing ailment to go on leave, in a bid to protect them from the Coronavirus infection. They have been told not to come for work until the virus is brought under control.
The decision was taken by the Mumbai Police Chief Param Bir Singh after three policemen, who were above the age of 50, died of Coronavirus.
Maharashtra remains the worst-affected as a total of 1,233 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the state on Wednesday, crossing another grim milestone to surge past 6,000 confirmed cases.
The overall count has soared to 16,758, while a further 34 fatalities saw the death toll rise to 651.
Of the total 34 deaths, 25 were recorded in Mumbai alone – taking the city toll to 412 and the number of COVID-19 positive patients in the city shot up by 769 to 10,714.
Dharavi alone recorded 68 new cases, taking the total in Asia’s biggest slum to 733 cases and 21 deaths.
After the 1,567-case surge on Monday, this is the second-highest spike reported in the state.
Given the increasing number of cases and deaths, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray appealed to the defence, railways, ports and all other central undertakings in the state to give their premises as well as ICU beds for COVID-19 patients.
He made a personal appeal to Indian Army, Indian Navy, Indian Railways, ports and other central organisations stationed in Maharashtra, to take care of the fresh influx expected after the lockdown is lifted and international flights resume operations.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Rajesh Tope said the state government has ordered all private doctors – around 15,000 in Mumbai – to either restart their clinics and nursing homes, or work for government hospitals in view of the Corona situation.
“We are also appealing to all private doctors to work at least 15 days in government hospitals and keep their clinics/nursing homes open, and failure to comply would attract action,” he said.
The state government is in the process of setting up a Wuhan-like 1,000-bed hospital for isolating and treating Coronavirus patients at the Bandra Kurla Complex grounds which will be operational by the month-end.
The Coronavirus tally in India crossed the 50,000 mark to stand at 52,952 on Thursday, with over 3,500 cases reported since Wednesday. The death toll in the country reached 1,783.