57K new Covid cases in state; 11K in Mumbai

The number of Covid-19 new cases both in Maharashtra and Mumbai on Sunday continued to rise, with the state seeing 57,074 cases and city 11,206, forcing the state to tighten regulations

The number of Covid-19 new cases both in Maharashtra and Mumbai on Sunday continued to rise, with the state seeing 57,074 cases and city 11,206, forcing the state to tighten regulations.

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Dr Tatyarao Lahane, director, medical education and research, blamed the new variant of Covid-19 for the rise in the number of patients. “The new variant is highly infective and is spreading faster compared to the old one,” said Dr Lahane. He said the state was ramping up tests to contain this virus. “We want to isolate patients and treat them to contain this virus,” he added.

The state conducted 196,988 tests in the past 24 hours, compared to 184,404 tests the previous day.

Mumbai also saw a huge rise as the number of active patients, now reaching 66,803 with the addition of 11,206 patients on Sunday. Even the total deaths in Mumbai reached 11,779 with the addition of 25 on Sunday. The total number of active cases in the state stood at 430,503, with Pune leading with 81,317 cases. Similarly the total number of deaths has now reached 55,878, with Mumbai on top, followed by 8,434 in Pune.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has added an additional 3000 DCHC Covid beds in various hospitals and appealed to symptomatic patients to occupy available beds instead of waiting for their choice of hospital.

The state government on Sunday imposed curbs such as weekend lockdown along with the tightening regulations on weekdays such as closure of restaurants, salons and spas.

Dr Satyendranath Mehra, medical director at Masina Hospital in Byculla, welcomed the curbs. “Such curbs will reduce the interaction between people which will translate into bringing down the rate of transmission of the virus,” said Dr Mehra.

He said unlike last year, people are recovering more in home quarantine this time. “We now have a clear line of treatment unlike last year when we were still unsure of it,” said Mehra.

The state administered 462,000 vaccines on Saturday, which is a national record for the highest number of vaccinations in a single day.

Dr Lahane contended vaccinations will increase further in the coming days. “We want to vaccinate more people so the severity of the virus is reduced and incidences of deaths can be reduced,” said Dr Lahane.