Mumbai: With Mumbai contributing almost 50 per cent to Maharashtra's daily COVID-19 infections, experts say that these numbers are only going to rise in coming weeks. Thought the state government has implemented stringent measures ahead of Christmas and New years, the situation is worrying as the city recorded around 700 cases on Friday, December 24.
Mumbai on December 24 recorded 683 new Covid-19 cases and 1 death. The count of active cases stood at 3,277. City's positivity rate rose to 1.52 per cent. while 40,472 tests were conducted on December 24.
There was no containment zone, the recovery rate of Mumbai is 97% and the doubling rate is 1536 days.
Now, let’s have a closer look at the cases and the corresponding tests done in the city.
December 1: 108 cases and 37,877 tests
December 5: 213 cases and 38,923 tests
December 10: 192 cases and 36,515 tests
December 15: 238 cases and 43,556 tests
December 20: 204 cases and 30,672 tests
December 21: 327 cases and 37,973 tests
December 22: 490 cases and 45,014 tests
December 23: 602 cases and 39,423 tests
December 24: 683 cases and 40,472 tests
It’s clear that the testing hasn’t seen a drastic decrease. Experts too say that testing has been consistent and now the need is to get more tests on genome sequencing. Dr Harish Chafle, Senior Consultant, Pulmonology and Critical Care at Global Hospitals said that the present testing numbers were adequate at present, though there might be the need to further increase the rate.
“Further, there has to be an increase in tests for genome sequencing to identify the Omicron variant. Thorough contact tracing and testing is also essential. So, from here on, every healthcare worker including the laboratory person needs to pull up their socks to be ready to handle, an increase in the number of cases due to this new variant which is highly infectious in nature,” he told India Today.
Dr Lancelot Pinto, Consultant Pulmonologist and Epidemiologist, PD Hinduja Hospital has warned that the new variant has the potential to spread in the community quickly.
“We were expecting a rise in the number of infections and a possible third wave because of Omicron, and the increasing numbers are in line with what was anticipated. This is what has happened in other parts of the world, and we are likely to experience the same cycle that SA went through, and other countries such as the UK, Denmark and the US are presently going through. It has been over 6-8 months since the most vulnerable groups received a second dose of the vaccine, and with waning immunity and a novel variant which has immune escape properties, we need to be very cautious, especially to avoid crowds. The variant is likely to spread through the community, but how fast it spreads will determine how overwhelmed the healthcare system gets.”
