The coronavirus outbreak, which brought the maximum city --Mumbai-- to a standstill since March 2020, now appears to be entering a brighter phase as the doubling rate of its COVID-19 cases has increased to 61 days, the highest in the country. A report by the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation, on Thursday, stated that the containment plan chalked out proved to be effective due to aggressive contact tracing, testing, treatment and isolation.
“The average duration of the doubling of cases has crossed sixty days now. Interestingly, on March 22, 2020, when the pandemic hit the city, the doubling rate was as low as 3 days, which increased to 30 days by June 16, 2020. On June 24, it was 41 days. The increase in the doubling rate was possible due to our aggressive 4 T strategy -- Tracing, Tacking, Testing and Treating," said a senior BMC official.
The doubling rate is calculated over three, five or seven days to assess the containment measures. The official said that the current data is based on the last seven days, which was collected from all the 24 administrative wards of BMC.
Meanwhile, two wards have registered a doubling rate of over 100 days. H east ward, which constitutes Bandra east and Khar east, amongst others, has registered an average doubling rate of 126 days. Similarly, B ward (comprising Dongri, Bhendi Bazaar, Masjid Bunder and Mohammed Ali road) has recorded a doubling rate of 109 days.
The lowest doubling rate this week has been registered in R central ward (Borivali west) with 32 days, followed by R south ward (Kandivali) and D ward (Malabar Hill, Gamdevi, Peddar Road and Nepean Sea Road) with 38 days and 43 days, respectively. As many as 16 wards of the total 24 have recorded a doubling rate above 50 days and below 90 days.
The number of cases in Mumbai might have surpassed Wuhan, China, but officials claim that there is a silver lining -- the curve of virus is showing signs of flattening. More and more patients are getting cured and discharged in the maximum city, shooting up its recovery rate and pulling down the number of active cases. As on July 23, total 77,102 people have been cured and discharged, registering the city's recovery rate at 72 per cent. The city currently has 22,800 active cases.
The report also said that the average percentage of daily growth in the number of patients declined from 2.30 per cent on June 17 and 1.72 per cent on June 24 to 1.14 per cent as on July 23.
"This is a good sign. That the doubling rate in all the wards is increasing. This shows how we have managed to slow down the rate of infection in all the areas. In the areas where the growth rate is higher as compared to other places, we are maintaining strict containment measures," said a senior BMC official.
