Covid-19: 532 new cases in Mumbai, eight deaths on Friday

There was a surge in the daily covid-19 cases across the city on Friday, with 532 new cases and eight covid fatalities being reported in the last 24 hours, increasing the total case count to 7,46,782 with 16,149 deaths so far. Meanwhile the doubling rate of Mumbai has marginally increased to 1,123 days, while the recovery and weekly growth rate remained constant at 97 per cent and 0.06 per cent.

Maharashtra also witnessed a marginal drop in covid cases on Friday, with 2,620 new infections and 59 COVID deaths being recorded in the last 24 hours, pushing it’s tally to 65,73,092 with 1,39,470 fatalities till now.

According to BMC officials, the city is in a much better position than what was anticipated owing to the fear of Covid-19. Senior health officer from the civic health department said “I would say we are in a better position where I would add a comfortable position but not in the safe zone. The period till October 30 is crucial by which we will understand the spread pattern of Covid-19 post festive season.”

Dr Pradip Awate, state surveillance officer said the state is monitoring as the numbers could see some increase owing to crowding in the past two weeks due to the festivals. Moreover, they are also increasing testing during this period which will help them to diagnose COVID cases and control the transmission. “Due to crowding during the celebrations, we expect some increase in cases. It is crucial to keep test numbers high in this period to locate infection and prevent it from spreading. Meanwhile, there are no indications of the potential third wave as of now,” he said.

Officials added that they are also focusing on speeding up the vaccination drive in the districts where the percentage of the first dose and second doses are low. The vaccination drive will also help in the fight to prevent the third wave, officials said.