Mumbai reports more than 2000 COVID infections for second consecutive day; active cases tally crosses 13,000 mark

Mumbai and Maharashtra continue to report the highest single-day Covid cases for the second consecutive day. The city reported 2,366 new cases in the last 24 hours, which is the highest since January, taking the total case count to 10,88,248 till date. Meanwhile, two people succumbed to the deadly virus, increasing the death toll to 19,578 so far.

The state also reported 4,255 new cases and three deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing its tally to 79,19,442, with 1,47,877 fatalities till now.

Moreover, as per the latest report of the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), two patients infected with the BA.5 variant have been reported from Nagpur. One patient is a 29-year-old male while the other is a 54-year-old female, found to be positive on June 6 and 9, respectively. The male has a history of travelling to Kerala while the woman had travelled to Mumbai last week. Both are vaccinated and recovering in home isolation. With this, the total tally of BA.4 and BA.5 variant cases found in the state goes to 19.

“Viruses keep evolving so we will see more lineages of the variants. But the seriousness should be gauged with the hospitalisation rate. Unlike the previous waves, in a population with a high vaccination rate, the severity will be less,” state surveillance officer, Dr Pradip Awate said.

Meanwhile, Dr Sanjith Saseedharan, consultant and head of critical care at SL Raheja Hospital, said the growth advantage due to the increased transmissibility seen due to the circulating variants like omicron has added to the increase in the number of cases. Though the symptoms are mild in healthy individuals, it might become a troublesome issue for the elderly and patients with comorbidities as they may require hospitalisation. “The continuous circulation of this virus may also result in a new variant that may be different or even aggressive as compared to the existing ones. Hence, being vaccinated, taking boosters and masking is the only prevention, especially for high-risk populations,” he said.