Maharashtra and Mumbai reported zero COVID-19 deaths on Monday following which the death toll remained constant at 1,48,026 and 19,632 fatalities respectively. The previous zero deaths in the state were reported on July 10 this year, while the city had reported zero deaths on July 12.
On the other hand, the number of cases was halved in the last 24 hours across the state, with 1,111 new cases being reported on Monday, pushing its tally to 80,20,502 cases so far.
Meanwhile, the city also reported 167 new cases in the last 24 hours, increasing the total count to 11,21,262 cases. Moreover, the doubling days have crossed the 2,000-mark until July 18, while the weekly growth dropped to 0.028 per cent.
According to the latest report from the NIV, Pune & BJ Medical College, Pune, 26 cases of BA.5 have been found in the state. In addition, 13 patients have been found with the BA.2.75 variant. 23 cases are from Mumbai, 13 from Pune and 1 each from Buldhana, Latur and Thane. These samples are from the period 29 June and 4 July 2022. A detailed epidemiological investigation of these cases is currently underway. This has taken the tally of BA.4 and BA.5 patients to 158 and that of BA.2.75 patients to 70.
Dr Vasant Nagvekar, Co-director of Infectious Disease at Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital said It is good to see the number of covid cases decline significantly. It was just a blip that we saw and it affected predominantly the population which had not suffered from covid during the third wave. There were sparse cases of reinfection but the number was very small.
“The decline in the number was probably due to herd immunity built up in the population. Looking back, it appears that the people who became positive during the first wave were protected from delta but vice versa people who suffered from the first or second wave were not protected from the third wave and omicron and also not protected from the blip of omicron which we just went through,” he said.
