Mumbai’s Covid-19 cases cross 5-K mark

Count at 5,049, toll touches 191; BMC says aggressive testing helped identify 98K at high and low risk

The city crossed the 5,000 mark on Saturday, as it recorded the highest number of cases in a single day – 602. While the case count stood at 5,049, the toll was 191 with 13 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to data from the state health department. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), excluding Mumbai, saw 912 cases, with 717 cases in Thane (15 deaths), 139 in Palghar (4 deaths) and 56 in Raigad (1 death).

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With its thrust on aggressive testing and contact tracing, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has identified 98,859 people who came in touch with 4,447 positive patients (count till Friday evening), of which 15,359 are at high risk and 83,500 at low risk. All high-risk contacts may not be necessarily infected, said a senior official from the civic health department. Of the total cases, 1,795 cases were detected in contact tracing, containment zone and fever clinic measures, said the BMC.

BMC commissioner Praveen Pardeshi said, “Because of our aggressive contact tracing strategy, we have identified over 15,000 high-risk contacts of patients. Of these, at least 6,123 people have been shifted to institutional quarantine facilities. Such large-scale contact tracing helped avoid a larger outbreak of coronavirus.”

The BMC officials sealed 43 new areas from central Mumbai as of Saturday. The number of containment zones in Mumbai climbed to 1,036 as of Saturday, according to data from the BMC. Also, the BMC removed 231 containment zones from its list, as these areas have completed their 14-day quarantine period and showed no new cases. The BMC categorises containment zones into blue, orange and red, with buildings which are formal housing clusters placed in the first category, congested pockets that are deemed manageable areas placed in the second, and congested pockets which need a tight lockdown placed in the third category. As of now, there are 476 zones in the blue category, 186 under orange and 374 under red.

According to the BMC’s estimates, the number of Covid-19 positive cases could reach 75,000 by May. Of them, symptomatic cases could be 12,000, while asymptomatic cases could reach 63,000.

The civic officials, along with the police department, have kept ready all staffers for surveillance during Ramazan, which began on Saturday. The BMC will use drone cameras to monitor the situation in areas such as Bandra East’s Behrampada, Bharat Nagar, Dnyaneshwar Nagar and Patthar Nagar. This area has recorded 184 coronavirus confirmed cases.