Mumbai’s death toll at 3,964 continues to be more than Delhi’s, at 2,365. (File)
On the 108th day since the first Covid-19 case was detected in the city, Mumbai recorded 1,118 new cases on Wednesday reaching the 69,528 mark. The only bright spot for the city is that it is no longer the main Covid hotspot in the country having overtaken by New Delhi which has crossed 70,000 cases.
Mumbai’s death toll at 3,964 continues to be more than Delhi’s, at 2,365.
Across Maharashtra, 3,890 Covid-19 cases were recorded — the highest yet again in a single day — reaching 1.42 lakh mark. The state reported 208 deaths on Wednesday, of them 136 are from before June 22, officials said, while 72 deaths were recorded in last 48 hours. Maharashtra has so far recorded 6,739 deaths due to Covid-19.
Even as Delhi surpassed Mumbai in total Covid-19 count, an indicator of higher viral transmission in Mumbai is through its positivity rate that stands at 23.2 per cent as opposed to Delhi at 16.7 per cent. Mumbai has tested close to 3 lakh people, Delhi has crossed 4 lakh in testing.
Mumbai is consistently testing between 4500-4800 people daily, a slight increase from 4,000 people tested daily during May. It is recording 1,000-1,500 cases on an average daily. For the first time in several days Mumbai has 100 ICU beds free. Until last week less than 30 beds would be available for severely ill patients. Apart from that 30 ventilators and 1,249 oxygen beds are available. In total there are 5,863 beds vacant and ready for admission.
“What is now working for Mumbai perhaps is its decentralised system for allotting beds. The process of admission is getting smoother,” said Dr Gautam Bhansali, coordinator between public and private hospitals in Mumbai for Covid-19. On Wednesday a meeting was held between BMC and hospitals. Hospitals were strictly instructed to stop admitting asymptomatic Covid-19 patients.
“We are moving to a situation where BMC centrally coordinates admission and test reports with labs,” an official said.
Under current system, once a patient is tested by a private lab, the report’s result is provided directly to BMC and patient by lab. The BMC then calls the patient and enquires about symptoms. If the patient requires Covid care support, he is shifted, if there are no symptoms home isolation is advised and if patient requires hospitalisation he is asked whether he would opt for public or private hospital. The BMC first locates a hospital in local ward before searching for beds in other wards.
Mumbai’s testing for Covid-19 is also set to get cheaper with a lakh antigen kits. This cheaper and faster test will be used for symptomatic and high risk population. It is expected to cost Rs 450. Civic officials said if a person tests positive then he is considered positive, if he tests negative then an RT-PCR will be required to confirm the negative report.
“We need RT-PCR to confirm a negative report because the sensitivity of antigen test is 40 to 60 per cent. So another test to confirm the negative antigen report is necessary,” said Dr Sujata Baveja, microbiologist in Sion hospital.
On Wednesday Mumbai’s recovery rate stood at 53 per cent and at least 2,434 recovered patients were discharged across city.
Across state 4,161 patients were discharged on Wednesday. Of the 72 deaths recorded in last 48 hours, 38 were from Mumbai, Pune 12, Nashik 4, Akola 2, Buldhana 2, Osmanabad 2, Solapur 4, Nandurbar 1 Jalgaon 1, Bhiwandi 1, Kalyan Dombivali 1, and Thane Corporation 1. State’s fatality rate stands at 4.72 per cent.