Mumbai: There was a slight drop in the number of new cases on Monday in both the state and the city, after record-high numbers of 40,414 and 6,923 respectively were reported on the preceding day.
There were 31,643 new infections and 102 deaths in the state in the last 24 hours, pushing the tally to 27,45,518, with 54,283 fatalities till now. In Mumbai, there were 5,883 new cases and 12 deaths on Monday, increasing the total count to 4,04,562, with 11,661 fatalities.
Meanwhile, the recovery rates of both the state and city have dropped to 85 per cent, while the overall positivity rate has increased to 14 and 10 per cent respectively. Moreover, the active cases in Maharashtra have increased to 3,36,584, of which 47,453 active cases are from Mumbai.
Cases in Maharashtra have risen exponentially over the past fortnight, with 3.9 lakh people testing positive for the virus. “Lockdown is the last resort, but we have to consider it because the healthcare infrastructure is crumbling. There are no beds available in the private sector and public-sector beds, too, are filling fast,” said Dr Shashank Joshi, member of the state covid-19 taskforce.
Dr Gautam Bhansali, consultant physician, Bombay Hospital, and coordinator for private hospitals during Covid said cases have been surging because of increased testing and this will be the case for the next 10-15 days. Maharashtra is in the grip of a second wave, he says. “There is no need to worry even though cases are increasing, as we have increased testing by almost 40 per cent compared to the number of tests in January. We need to adhere to Covid norms and not step out except in case of an emergency,” he said.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said testing had been stepped up by almost 60 per cent and as a result, there has been a surge in the daily cases. “We can sustain this spike in cases because of our available medical infrastructure. No lockdown is being planned in Mumbai, as it will bring all activities to a halt. Instead, we are going to increase the city’s bed capacity. Testing is being scaled up to 40,000 daily and vaccination is being accelerated,” he said.
