Maharashtra reported close to 48,000 coronavirus cases in a single day on Friday, with the state witnessing 47,827 new infections in the last 24 hours, pushing the tally to 29,04,076. This is the highest single-day spike in cases in the state so far since the pandemic outbreak last year.
For the third consecutive day, more than 200 COVID deaths were reported on Friday, with 202 people succumbing to the virus, increasing the death toll to 55,379 till now.
The city recorded more than 8,000 cases for the second consecutive day on Friday. Mumbai logged 8,832 new infections in the last 24 hours, increasing the total count to 4,32,192 so far. Again, this is the highest single-day spike reported since the pandemic outbreak.
The coronavirus death toll in the city has increased to 11,724, with 20 more patients succumbing to the SARS-CoV-2 virus on Friday.
The recovery and doubling rate has dropped to 84 percent and 46 days respectively, while weekly growth rate has increased to 1.46 per cent.
Senior health officials said that the government will gradually ramp up existing restrictions. The state government is deliberating on options including closing down markets, shops, malls, religious places theatres and even local trains in Mumbai, keeping it only for the workforce in the essential services category.
“There are several options on the table right now. But we can- not take the last step of closing down as our first step. The idea is to gradually tighten the exist-ing restrictions, while enforcing the existing ones. A lockdown is not an immediate option; we have to look at the economy and epidemic. We are not using the word lockdown now, instead, it should be looked at in terms of severity of the restrictions. In those terms, the restrictions that will follow could be between 25% and 50% of what were there last year,” he said.
Dr Subhash Salunkhe, state adviser for COVID-19 said, while the virus circulating in the state could be said to be more infectious than the first wave but not as lethal, more data is needed to draw its correlation to the surge. “With their relaxed behaviour, people have allowed the virus to enter their bodies, mutate and spread further. Even now, people are least bothered about the rules. So far, we have seen that only a small percentage of the newly infected have been diagnosed with a mutated strain. Thus, it is not scientifically correct to call it the main reason for the rise in new Covid cases, but just one of the contributing factors,” he said.
