Highest spike of 8,832 Covid-19 cases in Mumbai; Maharashtra records over 47,000 cases

The caseload in Mumbai has now climbed to 432,367 with 11,727 deaths and 361,043 recoveries. This is also the second consecutive day that cases breached the 8,000-mark in the city.

Mumbai on Friday recorded the highest spike in its daily coronavirus disease (Covid-19) tally since the beginning of the pandemic with 8,832 cases and 19 more deaths. The caseload in Mumbai has now climbed to 432,367 with 11,727 deaths and 361,043 recoveries. This is also the second consecutive day that cases breached the 8,000-mark in the city. On Thursday, 8,646 people tested positive for the disease, which was previously the highest spike since last year.

BMC medical staff conducting rapid antigen based Covid-19 tests of tourists visiting the Gateway of India, at Colaba in Mumbai on April 2, 2021. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

Maharashtra also saw the highest spike in its daily tally since last year with 47,827 new cases and the caseload breached the 2.9 million mark. A total of 202 people died and 24,126 were discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll and total recoveries to 55,379 and 2,457,494 respectively, the bulletin showed.

Amid indications that another lockdown might be imposed across the state to curb the spread of Covid-19, Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Friday an alternative will be found in the next two days and if no alternative is found, then the state government will have to decide on the next course of action after two days. Addressing a briefing, Thackeray also urged all the political parties in Maharashtra to positively respond to his request when it comes to lockdown.

Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar, meanwhile, said on Friday strict measures will have to be taken due to the rise in cases (since mid-February) which is creating pressure on the city’s health infrastructure. She added there are sufficient number of beds to accommodate the increasing number of patients but one has to act wisely before the city enters the danger zone.

According to the BMC data, Mumbai saw 88,710 Covid disease cases in March alone, almost 475% greater than February’s case count at 18,359. January saw 16,328 cases in total, the civic body’s data said. There were 70,351 more cases in Mumbai in March as compared to the February and 72,382 more cases as compared to the figures in January, the BMC data showed as reported by news agency PTI.