Over 5,000 new Covid-19 infections in Mumbai for 2nd straight day

For two consecutive days, Mumbai recorded over 5,000 cases, a mark that was not breached when the pandemic was at its peak in 2020.

In another record-breaking spike, Mumbai on Thursday reported 5,504 new infections, the highest ever single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic. On Wednesday, the city reported 5,185 fresh infections, which was the highest spike since March 2020.

A BMC health care workers taking a swab of people outside a shopping mall at Dadar in Mumbai, India, on Thursday, March 25, 2021. (Photo by Satish Bate/Hindustan Times) (Satish Bate/HT Photo)

The addition of around 400 cases is not surprising at the civic authorities have stepped up random testing at crowded places in the city. However, the 24-hour toll in the city has gone up. On Thursday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation reported 14 deaths, more than double of Mumbai's death toll on Wednesday (6). In the last 24 hours, 46,869 Covid-19 tests have been done, the BMC reported.

How bad is the current wave of Covid in India?

A total of 457 buildings in the city are sealed. With Thursday's hike in the number of fresh cases, the recovery rate of the city came down to 88 per cent from Wednesday's 90 per cent. The doubling rate in Mumbai has come down to 75 days, which means that the infection is taking 75 days to double its number. On Wednesday, the doubling rate was calculated as 84 days.

The city has completed administering 10 lakh vaccine doses and is now aiming to increase it to one lakh per day. It has also set a target of conducting 60,000 tests per day.

According to BMC's days on Thursday, the KW ward of the city has 2,884 active cases, the highest in the city, followed by the RC ward which has 1,939 active Covid-19 cases.

The KW ward also leads in the number of the sealed building as out of 457 buildings sealed in the city, 114 fall in this ward. The civic authorities are sealing any building which has more than five positive cases.

The BMC has also decided to gear up the total availability of Dedicated Covid Health Centre/DCH (Dedicated Covid Healthcentre) COVID beds in Mumbai from 13,773 (out of which 5,140 are vacant) to 21,000 COVID beds in the next 15 days.