Mumbai Mumbai breached the 1000-mark after four months registering 1,242 fresh cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, forming the bulk of cases recorded in the state. The last time the daily caseload crossed 1,000 was on February 2, when the city recorded 1,121 new cases during a third wave driven largely by the Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2.
To be sure, the hospitalisation rate in the city remained low at 1.03%, with 24,346 of 24,600 beds earmarked for Covid patients, still unoccupied. The daily test positivity rate (TPR) was also lower than the previous day’s — 7.24% as compared to Monday’s 9.8% — with 17,415 tests conducted in the 24 hours preceding Tuesday. On Monday, the city had recorded 676 fresh cases, and 6,870 tests were conducted.
Of the 1,242 fresh cases, 1,168 were asymptomatic, the civic body’s health bulletin noted.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) attributed Tuesday’s numbers to the increased number of tests. “Cases have increased due to a surge in testing, and it will increase further. However, we are getting cases from each part of the city especially from non-slum areas,” Mangala Gomare, executive health officer, BMC, said, adding that the civic body was keeping track of super-spreaders and incidental hospitalisations — where a patient reaching the hospital for other treatments were getting diagnosed through mandatory RT-PCR testing.
Gomare said that the civic body had sent batches of Covid-19 samples for genome sequencing to track the variant causing this spread. “Earlier when we saw cases rising at such a rapid pace, we found out a new variant. This time also we are staying vigilant and have already sent samples for genome sequencing.”
Last week civic chief Iqbal Chahal issued an order to ramp up testing by at least four times the prevalent numbers to 40,000 tests a day.
Maharashtra, which recorded 1,881 fresh Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, has been seeing a steady rise in daily caseload particularly since the last week of May, and has breached 1,000-cases mark daily since June 1. Mumbai has contributed the most to the state’s figures — on Tuesday, it was 66% of the state’s tally — averaging 60% to 70% of the total state numbers since the last week of May.
On Monday, the state health department made a presentation to the state cabinet with chief minister Uddhav Thackeray in attendance. Health minister Rajesh Tope said that the maximum number of cases in the state was being seen from five districts including Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Raigad and Palghar.
Most of the infections are from the Omicron variant’s offshoots, the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-lineages, Tope said on Monday and added that the overall hospitalisation rate in the state was also low at 1% of all positive cases. The last surge in the state occurred between January and February. On February 2, for instance, when Mumbai recorded 1,121 cases, the hospitalisation rate in the city was 4.5% with only 1,600 beds occupied out of the 37,200 beds earmarked for Covid treatment.
Quoting the latest report on the whole genomic sequencing from BJ Medical College, Pune, the health department’s bulletin stated that one positive case had the BA.5 sub-lineage: the woman was asymptomatic and recovered in home isolation.
There is no data available on what proportion of the new cases are of the BA.4 and BA.5.
The rise in numbers has led to an increasing demand from several quarters to re-introduce mandatory mask-wearing in public places. However, the state is yet to issue any such order and the additional chief secretary (public health) Pradeep Vyas has written to all districts to appeal to citizens to wear masks.
Dr Shashank Joshi, member of state Covid-19 Task Force said that citizens should stay vigilant and continue wearing masks at crowded and poorly ventilated spaces.
“Right now, cases are being reported in clusters and most of the cases that we are seeing are asymptomatic and mild. The current priority should be protecting vulnerable groups by following mask behaviour seriously. The number of tests has also been increased to identify the cases at an advanced stage that will also help in expediting the treatment policy.”
With 1,242 daily cases on Tuesday, Mumbai saw most new infections in a single in day since January 29. Tuesday’s tally was also the first time that Mumbai had seen daily cases touch four-digits in more than four months, according to data furnished by the BMC.
After Tuesday’s additions, the seven-day average of daily infections in the city — a statistic that represents a “case curve” of a region – has now climbed to 853 infections a day for the past week, against a low of 26 average cases a day for the week ended March 26, according to data furnished by the BMC. Just two weeks ago, this number was at an average of 204 cases a day, which means that the case rate in the city has now increased more than 300% in the past fortnight.
“The cases are increasing but most are asymptomatic in nature where patients do not need hospitalization. Most of them are getting well by medication and home quarantine. The impending fourth wave appears to be mild in nature,” said Dr Satyendra Nath Mehra, medical director of Masina Hospital.
Maharashtra recorded a positivity rate of 5.26 % on Tuesday, and 35,694 tests were conducted in the previous 24 hours. There are 8,432 active cases in the state, including 5,974 in Mumbai, 1,310 in Thane and 562 in Pune. As of Tuesday, Mumbai has recorded 1,070,854 cases and 19,569 deaths. The recovery rate in the city is 98%, and the 24 hours before Tuesday, 506 patients were discharged. The caseload of the state stands at 7,896,114, and 147,866 people have died due to Covid. No deaths were recorded in Maharashtra on Tuesday.