COVID-19 in Mumbai: Around 19,000 - 20,000 cases likely today, says Maharashtra task force member

Maharashtra COVID-19 task force member Dr Shashank Joshi has said that around 19,000 - 20,000 cases are expected in Mumbai today. He further added that this may not be the actual number as many cases could be unreported.

"Mumbai number saturated or flattened out ,today 19 to 20 K anticipated. True picture difficult due to wide use of unreported rapid tests.Hopefully flatter trend, milder disease and treatment of vulnerable groups will allow us to tide over this Omicron tsunami in next 2 weeks," Joshi tweeted.

For the third consecutive day, more than 20,000 new Covid cases were reported in Mumbai on Saturday.

The city recorded 20,318 new cases in the last 24 hours, a 3 per cent drop from the 20,971 cases reported the day before, taking the total count to 8,95,098 so far. Officials have attributed this marginal drop to the delay in test results by laboratories that are so backlogged that they are unable to deliver reports in 24 hours.

Also, self-testing has become hugely popular and these are largely unreported.

There were five Covid deaths in Mumbai on Saturday, taking the total number of fatalities to 16,399. From January 1 to 8, 22 Covid deaths have been reported in the city, of which 20 were from the 60-plus group and two from the under-40 group.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra on Saturday reported 41,434 new coronavirus cases, a new high, and 13 deaths, health officials said.

It took the state's infection tally to 68,75,656, and death toll to 1,41, 627.

There are 1,73,238 active cases in Maharashtra at present.

On Friday, the state had recorded 40,925 new cases and 20 deaths.

Earlier in the evening, the state government announced new restrictions including ban on movement in groups of five and more in public places during daytime from January 10 midnight

As many as 1,95,844 coronavirus tests were conducted on Saturday, taking the total of samples tested to 7,03,42,173.

As many as 9,671 patients were discharged from hospitals after complete recovery, taking the tally of recoveries to 65,57,081.

Recovery rate in the state is 95.37 percent and case fatality rate is 2.05 percent.

State capital Mumbai reported 20,318 cases and five deaths.

The larger Mumbai division reported 33,134 new cases and six deaths.

Nashik division reported 1,392 new cases including 846 in Nashik city.

Pune division reported 4,749 cases including 2,521 in Pune city.

Kolhapur division recorded 489 cases, Aurangabad division 226 cases, Latur division 251 cases and Akola division recorded 212 new cases.

Nagpur division recorded 981 new cases including 577 in Nagpur city.

Maharashtra's coronavirus figures are as follows: Total cases 68,75,656, New cases 41,434, Death toll 1,41,627, Total recoveries 65,57,081, Active cases 1,73,238, Total tests 7,03,42,173.

(With agency inputs)