Mumbai recorded COVID-19 cases in three digits for the first time since March 2. On Tuesday, 953 new cases and 44 deaths were reported. With this, the tallies stand at 6,90,889 and 14,352, respectively.
Meanwhile, the state on a whole saw a marginal rise in its daily cases on Tuesday. 28,438 new cases and 679 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. The tallies now stand at 54,33,506 and 83,777, respectively. The recovery rate has touched 90 per cent. 52,898 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, taking the total count to 49.27,480 so far.
Dr Om Shrivastav, who is a part of the Maharashtra government’s COVID-19 task force, said, “We can’t look at Mumbai in isolation. The cases have come down, but cases in the rest of the state or country have not. So what will happen if the restrictions are lifted? To say that the second wave is declining, we need to wait till the end of September at least and then relook at the figures and decide.”
Experts also believe that the city needs to keep its testing high despite its low positivity rate. Dr Rahul Pandit, another member of the task force, said, “We may record a lower positivity rate. However, until we have a positivity rate below 5%, testing in high numbers is a better strategy. This can be done by contact tracing in large numbers during the first 24 hours. We can target areas that have reported a higher number of cases,” he said.
