Mumbai’s positivity rate falls to 6.06%, deaths remain a concern

Despite the number of cases and daily positivity rate going down to as low as around 6% in the city on Tuesday, followed by an increase in bed availability, the number of deaths has not gone down, reveals data of the state health department

Despite the number of cases and daily positivity rate going down to as low as around 6% in the city on Tuesday, followed by an increase in bed availability, the number of deaths has not gone down, reveals data of the state health department.

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On Tuesday, city recorded 1,717 cases, followed by 51 deaths. This took the total case tally to 679,129 and toll to 13,906. Around 28,258 tests were conducted on Tuesday.

The recovery rate in the city is 91% with 679,129 recoveries, and mortality is 2.04%. The positivity rate of 6.06% was recorded. Dharavi has 692 active cases and 5,605 have been discharged.

According to state health department data, between April 4 and May 8, the number of cases being reported has steadily gone down on a week-on-week basis from around 60,000 cases to 20,000. However, the death count on a week-on-week basis has only increased but has stagnated in the past one week.

As per the data, between April 4 and April 10, 69,037 cases were reported followed by 190 deaths, while between April 11 and April 17, 60,506 cases were reported followed by 357 deaths and between April 18 to April 24, 51,128 cases were reported followed by 425 deaths.

In the next two weeks, the weekly cases went down to 30,222 cases between April 25 and May 1, however, the deaths in the same period went up to 533. Lastly, in the week between May 2 to May 8, 21,421 cases were reported followed by 498 deaths. The fatality rate also in this period has almost remained the same, that was 2.41% on April 4, 2.06% on April 22 and 2.03% on May 8.

In this period, the bed availability has also improved, and the overall capacity of beds has increased in the same period from around 16,000 beds to around 22,000, as of May 11.

The state task force on the other hand claims the fatality rate in the second wave has been much lesser when compared to that of the first wave.

Dr Shashank Joshi, member of Maharashtra’s Task Force said, “The deaths will go down in the coming days. The deaths recorded in the second wave’s peak is much lesser than the peak of the first wave. The deaths generally go down in a period of three to six weeks after the peak is over. The death rate increasing has nothing to do with the new strain considering this strain spreads easily, but is less deadly. The deaths are also increasing due to delayed treatment.”

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, said, “We are witnessing that the deaths are going down slowly, and they will not go up for now, until we control the number of cases. The deaths are due to the piled up cases of the earlier days. These are referred late to the hospitals from nursing homes or due to delayed treatment or diagnosis.”