There were more than 100 cases of Covid reported in the city on Tuesday, with 102 new infections recorded in the last 24 hours, increasing the total count to 10,59,433 cases as of now.
The last time cases in the city breached the 100-mark in a single day was on March 2. However, there were zero deaths reported on Tuesday, with the death toll standing at 19,562.
In the rest of Maharashtra too, there was a surge in cases in the last 24 hours, with 153 new cases and four Covid deaths being reported on Tuesday, pushing the tally to 78,77,078 and 1,47,838 fatalities so far.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said there was no need to panic, considering that most people were vaccinated and this was a barrier against the infection. Moreover, civic staff have been instructed to carry out tracing of up to 15 high-risk contacts and enforce home or institutional quarantine.
“We have asked to monitor cases and identify clusters if reported, to carry out 1:15 contact tracing, to enforce quarantine strictly, and speed up vaccination in their respective areas. Meanwhile, higher surveillance is in place for international travellers and it is continued after they return to Mumbai,” he said.
Dr Lancelot Pinto, consultant pulmonologist and epidemiologist, P D Hinduja Hospital, said, “I think comparing cities and test positivity rates is going to be a futile exercise now, considering the number of variables involved. We know that many individuals choose to test with rapid-antigen kits at home, and these do not get reported. Even the decision about whether or not to test has become subjective.
“Better metrics might be the number of individuals testing positive among traveller screenings, or pre-hospitalization screenings (for non-Covid reasons), although even these are not universally recommended anymore. For community spread, we need to look at innovative methods such as wastewater surveillance, and for severe disease, we need to analyze hospitalization numbers, as these are more robust and not affected by subjective decisions,” he said
