For the last one month, the city has been reporting less than 1,000 COVID-19 cases. There has been a 67.50 per cent drop in the cases compared to the last month. Civic officials said that the situation is improving, but there is no guarantee that it will remain the same. Surveillance needs to be ramped up and COVID-19 appropriate protocol needs to be followed.
According to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data, 26,307 cases were reported between October 30 and November 29, which dropped to 8,548 between November 30 and December 29. Similarly, the active cases also dropped to 8,186 till December 29 from 13,008, which was until November 30 (almost 37 per cent in one month).
Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, BMC, said though the virulence of SARS-CoV-2 virus has reduced and the number of cases has also decreased, everyone must continue to adhere to the COVID-19 norms. “We cannot forget that there was a spike in the cases after Ganeshotsav and Diwali. Now, everything is under control due to various factors. Moreover, citizens have become more aware about taking all the necessary precautions and following protocols,” he said.
Meanwhile, the city has a COVID-19 doubling rate of 365 days and a growth rate of 0.21 per cent. It also said that with 13,860 more COVID-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours and the number of samples examined so far has increased to 2,325,363.
Dr Subhash Salunkhe, who heads the state’s Communicable Diseases Prevention Control and Technical Committee, said the situation is improving, but there is no guarantee that it will remain the same. “We all have to be very cautious considering the new variant of the virus has been detected in the United Kingdom and many other countries. There is no need to panic, but the surveillance needs to be ramped up and COVID-19 appropriate protocol needs to be followed.”
BMC data also showed that the city has 290 containment zones and 2,561 sealed buildings at present. The civic body seals a building or declares a containment zone after one or more patients test positive for the viral infection.
