Mumbai reports highest ever new coronavirus cases, 457 buildings sealed

A child cries while a health worker taking the antigen test for COVID 19 (ANI) — A child cries while a health worker taking the antigen test for COVID 19 **(ANI)**

3 min read . Updated: 25 Mar 2021, 08:37 PM IST Staff Writer

Mumbai on Thursday reported as many as 5,504 new COVID-19, which is a record high since the pandemic outbreak
With this, the total number of cases was pushed to 2,94,130

Mumbai on Thursday reported as many as 5,504 new COVID-19, which is a record high since the pandemic outbreak. With this, the total number of cases was pushed to 2,94,130. On Wednesday, the city had reported 5,185 new cases, which was also a new high. Currently, the active cases stand at 33,961.

The financial capital today recorded 14 deaths pushing the number of related fatalities to 11,620. Meanwhile, with 2,281 discharges, the recovery total added up to 33,3603. The recovery rate in Mumbai is currently 88%.

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There are 40 active containment zones which include slums and chawls while 457 buildings have been sealed so far after patients were found there. The growth rate of the viral infection between March 17 and 23 in the city was 0.79% while the recovery rate was 90%, it said.

On Wednesday, Dharavi, Mumbai's largest slum, recorded 62 new coronavirus cases, significant growth in daily cases after a gap of nearly 10 months, as per a PTI report.

On May 18 last year, Dharavi had reported 85 such cases. However, the infection count had started dropping gradually due to factors like lockdown, migration out of the slum and a number of steps taken by the administration, a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official said. "However, with the new virus strain and easing of restrictions on movement, the cases have witnessed a surge again," he said.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, BMC said it has planned to increase the number of beds for treatment from 13,773 now, of which 5,140 are empty, to 21,000 in the next 15 days. He said the figure of 21,000 beds to fight the outbreak over the next six to eight weeks was reached by looking at a scenario where the number of cases per day in the metropolis reached 10,000, and by assuming some 15% people who showed symptoms would be treated institutionally. The BMC planned to increase the number of COVID-19 tests per day to 60,000, the official added.

He said the mortality rate was low at 0.3% of the 56,220 positive cases between February 10 and March 21 this year, with the city seeing 200 deaths during this period, or 4.6 deaths per day. The low mortality rate and the adequate number of beds meant the BMC was in complete control of the outbreak situation but people must not let their guard down and should follow all COVID-19 norms strictly, the official added.

Meanwhile, India recorded more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday for the first time since November as a new wave of infections takes hold a year after one of the world's tightest Covid-19 lockdowns was imposed. The nation of 1.3 billion people was this month overtaken by Brazil as the second-most infected country after cases dipped in December and January from a peak of nearly 100,000 per day in September.