Mumbai has 22,854 active infections, out of more than one lakh Covid-19 cases recorded to date.
MUMBAI IS recording hospital admissions of 150 to 200 Covid-19 patients daily, a drop from 1,000 daily admissions over a month, said BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal during a Facebook Live address on Saturday, in an indication that the number of symptomatic patients is on a steady decline in the city.
Mumbai has 22,854 active infections, out of more than one lakh Covid-19 cases recorded to date. As opposed to that, Pune district has 46,013 active cases and Thane district has 36,678. Pune has the highest active caseload in the state.
On Saturday, the state recorded 9,251 new cases, and 257 deaths due to Covid-19. Mumbai recorded 1,080 cases taking its total to 1.08 lakh, and and 52 deaths with the toll rising to 6,036.
On July 3, the BMC did away with mandatory doctor’s prescription for Covid-19 testing. Until then, only symptomatic and high-risk contacts were allowed to undergo tests, through a prescription, apart from frontline workers, pregnant women, and those slated for surgery. Even as the pool of testing rose from 4,000 in May to 7,000, the number of daily positive cases has plateaued at 1,200 to 1,500.
“We tested 7,600 people today (Saturday) and 1,080 came positive… about 85 per cent are asymptomatic. Only few require hospitalisation,” Chahal said. As on Saturday, around 170 people required hospitalisation. The city has 7,100 beds lying vacant in hospitals and jumbo facilities, and 214 vacant intensive care units.
Chahal said the BMC conducted a door-to-door survey of 1.71 crore people in the last 110 days, using 8,000 civic staff, for early detection of cases.
According to Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani, more people prefer home isolation over institutional admission. “After a positive test report, a health team visits homes to check blood pressure, oxygen saturation level, and temperature. Most cases can now be managed at home,” he said.