Covid-19: ‘Cannot go backwards Mumbai’, tweets BMC after city records highest single-day spike

Mumbai has been witnessing an upsurge in the daily tally of cases in the past few weeks

The BrihanMumbai Corporation (BMC) cautioned the people of the city on Thursday, after a huge spike in its number of Covid-19 cases. Mumbai recorded 5,185 new cases of the infection on Wednesday, its highest ever. Comparing Mumbai's Covid-19 numbers with January, the BMC expressed concern.

BMC has started to randomly test people in crowded places like malls, beaches, railway stations et al. REUTERS/Niharika Kulkarni/Files (REUTERS)

"From 236 to 5185! January saw the least number of new cases in the city since the pandemic - 236. March witnessed the highest. We cannot go backwards Mumbai, we cannot drop our guards now. Follow all Covid-19 prevention norms. Stay safe," it tweeted.

Mumbai has been witnessing an upsurge in the daily tally of cases in the past few weeks. The capital city of Maharashtra - the worst-affected state - has been reporting over 3,000 cases everyday for some time now. On Tuesday, the city reported 3,512 new cases - an eight per cent increase over Monday’s 3262, which marked a slight fall from the 3,775 new cases recorded on Sunday. The growth rate of Covid-19 in Mumbai is pegged at 0.79 per cent with an overall recovery rate of 90 per cent, tweeted BMC on March 24.

As of 6 pm on March 24 the city had a total of 39 containment zones and 432 sealed buildings. 22, 472 high risk individuals have been traced in the last 24 hours, and 542 high risk contacts have been put up in CCC1 covid care centers, which are located in hotels, newly constructed buildings, lodges etc, according to the BMC Covid-19 update.

Civic authorities have attributed the recent upsurge to the increased number of tests being conducted daily. BMC has started to randomly test people in crowded places like malls, beaches, railway stations et al, which led to 33,553 additional tests being conducted in the last two days. Holi celebrations have also been curtailed in the city to prevent any further rise in cases. The civic body requested all citizens to follow all Covid-19 prevention norms and stay safe.