Mumbai reports 532 Covid cases, highest since July 15

The new cases were the highest since July 15, when the city recorded 528 new infections. Since then, daily new infections have been fewer than 500. A second indicator of the state of the outbreak, the test positivity rate, has hovered in 0.9-1.1% range since the beginning of the month.

Mumbai recorded 532 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, in line with a slight but sustained increase in its case trajectory over the last couple of weeks compared to a month ago.

Social distancing norms go for a toss as a sea of shoppers converge at Dadar market in Mumbai on Wednesday. (HT PHOTO)

The new cases were the highest since July 15, when the city recorded 528 new infections. Since then, daily new infections have been fewer than 500.

A second indicator of the state of the outbreak, the test positivity rate, has hovered in 0.9-1.1% range since the beginning of the month. In the third week of August, this was in the 0.5-0.7% range. The seven-day average of new cases in Mumbai is now at 434, compared to a low of 253 on August 18.

Between these periods, the city’s extensive local train network has reopened as have some schools – making the uptick now being recorded possibly not unexpected. Officials have denied any new curbs will be brought back immediately, but said they are closely watching the situation and have directed local authorities to stop people from crowding, particularly during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival.

“The health machinery of the state is making all efforts to make our vaccination drive against Covid-19 pandemic successful and setting records as well. On September 4, we vaccinated 1,227,224 doses and on August 21 1,104,465 doses were vaccinated,” said Dr Pradeep Vyas, additional chief secretary, health department.

The state government has banned physical viewing, or ‘darshan’, Ganesh idols at pandals during the ten-day Ganesh festival starting from September 10. An order by the home department has stated, “Darshan shall be made available online by the organisators.”

“The decision was taken considering the rise in daily cases in Mumbai and other areas. We all know that lakhs of devotees visit community mandaps for physical darshan of Lord Ganesh, which ultimately will result in crowding. We are not in a position to take any sort of risk when a threat of a potential third wave is looming large on us,” said a senior health official, wishing not to be named.

Dr Vyas, made a presentation before the state cabinet on the Covid situation on Wednesday. “He (Dr Pradeep Vyas) informed us that though there is no rise in daily cases but our testing has been reduced significantly. Earlier, the state used to conduct over two million tests a day which has been reduced to around 1.7 million a day. It also means that the active cases may be more than what we are seeing today,” said a senior minister, requesting anonymity.

There are five districts including Mumbai where a rise in Covid cases has been experienced and most of the cases are coming from these areas alone. In the ten days (between August 29 and September 9), the state has reported 41,425 cases, of them 28,373 (68.49%) cases comes from Pune (9,062 cases), Ahmednagar (7,544 cases), Satara (4,261 cases), Mumbai (3,919 cases) and Solapur (3,587 cases), according to a presentation prepared by the state health department.

Going by prediction by experts, the state government is expecting a rise in Covid-19 cases between September 15 and the first week of October. The city till now has had two waves of the infection.