Covid-19 situation under control, need to watch till mid-December: Mumbai civic body

BMC says November saw fewer cases than October; experts say dip result of drop in testing; 646 new cases take city’s tally to 283,467.

A rise in infections, without a sharp spike, suggests the Covid-19 situation is in control post Diwali, say Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials, however, insisting the need to watch it till mid-December.

The new post-Covid OPD centre at NESCO in Goregaon opened on Monday. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

Between November 1 and 28, 23,476 cases were reported, compared to 46,620 cases during the same period in October.

According to data, 3.68 lakh tests were conducted between October 1 and 28, compared to 3.48 lakh tests in the same period during November. In the same period, the case positivity rate came down from 12% to 6%.

The daily number of Covid-19 cases, however, has risen to 1,000, from the range of 500 earlier this month before Diwali.

“In the past 15 days, the testing has gone up, and we have also witnessed a little surge in the daily cases being reported. With the increase in testing, we will have to wait and watch at least till December 15 to understand better the post-Diwali surge,” a BMC official said.

Further, the fatality rate has come down from October 1 to 28 (1,224 deaths), to 529 during the same period during November. According to BMC officials, the testing had gone down in November in the city owing to Diwali and festive mood. Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner of BMC, said, “The testing went down in first half of November, but has improved in the second half. The next few weeks are crucial as we aim to maximise testing by setting up 244 testing centres and taking other initiatives to test citizens. Apart from this, our surveillance at railway stations has increased. We are testing BEST drivers, offices, street vendors, which has pushed up the testing count.”

However, Dr Siddarth Paliwal, a city-based doctor, said, “Cases might have gone down because testing has also gone down. The positivity rate may have gone down due to increased use of rapid antigen kits, which have lower positivity rate in comparison to RT-PCR kits. I do not feel there is any period in the coming days that is crucial. All I can say that until we have a vaccine, everything is crucial. We have to continue with
our Covid-19-appropriate behaviour.”

Meanwhile, on Monday, the city reported 646 new cases, taking the tally to 283,467; 19 deaths took the toll to 10,884. Further, 256,303 patients have been discharged . The city’s discharge rate is 90.41%.

The city has 15,473 active cases in Mumbai and fatality rate is 3.83%. Dharavi recorded only nine new cases. Dharavi’s tally is 3,692, of whom 3,361 have been discharged.