Mumbai: There were 35,952 new infections in Maharashtra on Thursday, the highest single-day surge since the pandemic outbreak, pushing its caseload to 26,00,833 till now, with 111 fatalities. For the second time this month, deaths have crossed the 100-mark, pushing the pandemic toll to 53,795.
In Mumbai, there were 5,504 cases, with infections crossing the 5,000-threshold for the second straight day, taking the total tally to 3,80,115. The previous high was 5,185, being reported just a day before. There were fourteen fatalities in the city on Thursday, and the Covid-19 death toll stands at 11,620.
According to the government's expert panel, the spike cannot be attributed to any one reason. Pandemic fatigue, which has translated into flouting social distancing norms, not wearing masks in public places and crowded of public transport, have all contributed to the spike.
For the first time since the outbreak last year, the civic body conducted close to 47,000 Covid tests in the city. On Thursday, 46,869 people were tested, as against the 40,500 tested just a day before.
“Day before yesterday, the BMC conducted 40,400 tests out of which 5,458 were COVID positive; the positivity was 13.5 per cent with 83% being asymptomatic positives. Yesterday, MCGM conducted 47,000 COVID tests (as per report received today morning) and the total number of COVID positive are 5,365 with positivity being 12% and the percentage of asymptomatic positives being 84 per cent,” said BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal in a release on Thursday.
According to Chahal, owing to adequate health infrastructure, the mortality rate has been extremely low -- 200 deaths between February and March 24, an average of 4.6 deaths per day.( In other words, a mortality rate of 0.3 per cent of the total positive cases in this period i.e. 56,220).
“There is absolutely no cause for panic or worry in the city and the BMC is in full control of the situation; it is confident of controlling the pandemic in due course of time,’’ he said.
With Thursday's numbers, the recovery rate of the city came down to 88 per cent from the previous day's 90 per cent. The doubling rate in Mumbai has come down to 75 days (in other words, the cases are doubling in 75 days); on Wednesday, this number stood at 84 days.
Dr Tatyarao Lahane, Director, Medical Education and Research, said, “Unlike other states which are testing only patients with symptoms, we are testing all. This is bound to increase our numbers,” said Lahane.
