Coronavirus patients "missing" from Mumbai civic ward

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official said the civic body had sought the police's help to trace the around 70 "missing" patients from the P-North ward that houses a major part of suburban Malad. "With the help of the Mumbai police, we have already traced some of them," said the official, but did not reveal the figure.

Around 70 coronavirus patients went "missing" from the P-North ward of the municipal corporation and some of them have been traced with help from the police, an official of the city civic body said on Wednesday. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official said the civic body had sought the police's help to trace the around 70 "missing" patients from the P-North ward that houses a major part of suburban Malad.

"With the help of the Mumbai police, we have already traced some of them," said the official, but did not reveal the figure. These patients had tested positive for coronavirus post submission of their samples but were untraceable when BMC officials went looking for them.

BMC sources said some of the patients have given either wrong or incomplete residential addresses, making it difficult to trace them. In some cases the patients' houses were found locked, while in others their mobile numbers were switched off, the sources said.

The sources said some of the patients are missing since the past 2-3 months. Since these missing patients could infect others, the BMC had sought the police help to trace them, they said.

The BMC sources said the police were trying to search the remaining missing patients with the help of their call detail record (CDR). Till Wednesday, Mumbai has reported a total of 69,625 coronavirus cases and 3,962 deaths.