E-Paper
Mumbai reports Covid spike, registers 413 new infections
Experts said that it cannot yet be termed as the start of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
With over 400 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases being reported in Mumbai daily over the last three days, the city has witnessed a 20% spike in weekly caseload in the last seven days as compared to the week before, according to data from the Maharashtra health department.
However, experts said it cannot yet be termed as the start of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
While Mumbai reported over 1,893 daily Covid-19 cases between August 21 and 27, it went up to 2,279 in the last seven days between August 28 and September 3, as per the state data.
According to the data, between August 21 and 27, the case tally went up from 740,870 to 742,763. The city also reported 22 deaths in the same period. However, between August 28 and September 3, the case tally increased from 743,154 to 745,433. Mumbai also reported 15 deaths in the period, taking the toll to 15,987. While the weekly cases have gone up, the number of Covid-19 deaths in the city has gone down, as per the state data.
The last seven days has also seen city testing more individuals for Covid-19. According to the data of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), between August 21 and 27, 210,140 tests were conducted in the city, of which 1,893 tested positive at test positivity rate (TPR) of around 0.90%. Between August 28 and September 3, the city conducted 256,214 tests, of which 2,279 reported positive for the infection at TPR of 0.88%. Overall, 9.3 million tests have been conducted in the city between February 3 last year and Friday. The overall positivity rate throughout the two waves stood at 7.94%.
Dr Rahul Pandit of Fortis Hospital, Mulund who is also a member of the state’s Covid-19 task force, said, “We have opened up (relaxed Covid-19 restrictions) since August 15, and with this opening up there some spike expected in the number of cases. But we still have a chance to control this figure around 400. If we do not adhere to Covid protocols, there will be further increase. Also, we cannot yet say it is the start of a third wave. But I will say that the third wave is at the door knocking on us. It is for us to remain cautious now.”
Meanwhile on Saturday, the city reported 413 new Covid-19 cases and four deaths, taking the case tally to 745,846 and toll to 15,991. Mumbai’s recovery rate is 96% with 723,386 recoveries. There are 4,031 active cases in the city and the fatality rate is 2.14%, according to the state health department.
So far, 9,802,995 beneficiaries have been given at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine in Mumbai and another 2,769,355 have been fully vaccinated, according to Mumbai civic body data.
.
