Coronavirus: Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium to be converted into quarantine facility amid COVID-19 crisis

The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) is ready to offer the Wankhede Stadium to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for transforming it into a quarantine facility to treat all the patients suffering from the coronavirus.

"We have received a formal request from the BMC to hand over the Wankhede as quarantine facility and the members have had a discussion where we have agreed to support them with facilities of MCA," sources within the MCA told ANI.

The third phase of the nationwide lockdown with "considerable relaxations" is currently in place till May 17. However, governments are also keeping in place necessary curbs so as to not lose all the gains that have been achieved in the battle against the virus.

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in India crossed the 85,000-mark on Saturday, while the death toll has topped the 2,700-mark as well.

Maharashtra continues to be the epicentre of the coronavirus spread where the number of cases has witnessed an even large spike recently, as the state added as many as 1,576 fresh cases to the tally, data released by the health department said.

According to the Health Ministry, Maharashtra has the highest number of cases with over 29,000 positive cases of infection and more than 1,000 deaths.

Notably, Mumbai, the financial capital of the country, has become the hotbed of the coronavirus spread in the state where the number of cases has crossed the 17,500-mark and the death toll has topped the 650-mark as well.

Mumbai alone accounts for 17,671 infections and 655 fatalities. The city reported 933 of the 1,576 new cases and 34  of the 49 deaths on Friday.

One of the real challenges in Mumbai is controlling the disease contamination in Asia's biggest slum -- Dharavi, which is an extremely densely-populated region. The entire Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has reported 21,925 cases and 718 deaths, the state government data showed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Tuesday announced a cumulative package of Rs 20 lakh crore to provide relief to various segments of the economy battered by coronavirus lockdown.

The package includes already announced PM Garib Kalyan Yojana providing grains and cash to poor and Rs 5.6 lakh crore stimulus provided through various monetary policy measures by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).