Cases may start to dip in city post April 20: BMC chief

As the city is under a mini lockdown with the shutting of non-essential shops, malls and religious places, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has maintained that this will help in controlling the spread of the virus

As the city is under a mini lockdown with the shutting of non-essential shops, malls and religious places, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has maintained that this will help in controlling the spread of the virus. According to BMC, the number of cases being reported daily might stabilise within the next 10 to 12 days, and a downward trend might start post April 20. However, it will be dependent on Covid-19 appropriate behaviour by citizens, BMC officials added.

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Municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal told HT, “If we look at the current scenario in the city of a second wave, the daily cases being reported in the city have almost stabilised between 8,000 and 11,000 daily cases. If this trend continues, cases will start going down post April 20, but this remains only if citizens continue to follow Covid-19 appropriate behaviour.”

Chahal added, “Covid-appropriate behaviour and vaccines for those eligible are the two most important things for citizens to follow. We need to undertake Covid-19 vaccination on the lines of polio vaccination, and for this we are trying to mobilise citizens. The BMC is yet to get permission for door-to-door vaccination, and hence I have requested elected representatives from the city to mobilise citizens for Covid-19 vaccination.”

The city has reported increased cases since February 10, from the earlier below-500 cases. Mumbai’s daily cases went up to 1,000 by February-end, 5,000 by March and around 10,000 cases by the first week of April. The positivity rate has gone up from 5% to around 26% by the first week of April.

Experts said the number of cases can go down in the next two to four weeks. Dr Shashank Joshi, member of Maharashtra’s Covid-19 task force, said, “In case of Mumbai, we are looking at different timelines. My assumption is that the situation should improve in the next two to four weeks. But citizens need to behave in a Covid-19 appropriate manner, and asymptomatic patients need to understand and not block a bed.”

Dr Madhav Sathe, former professor of Microbiology at Nair Hospital, said, “With so many restrictions, the caseload should go down in the coming days. However, we need to ensure no crowding in local trains, buses.”