Fatalities shoot up to 254 in Maharashtra, drop to 5 in Mumbai

MUMBAI: While the state reported a surge in Covid fatalities on Tuesday, Mumbai reported five deaths on Tuesday, the lowest after the four deaths on March 16.
A day after reporting record low cases, the state added 6,258 cases and 254 deaths, the highest in 38 days since June 19 (257). With this, the total cases rose to 62.7 lakh and fatalities touched 1,31,859.
While the daily death count in Mumbai has been hovering around 10 for over a month now, cases have been hovering between 300 and 500 on most days. The city added 344 cases, taking the total caseload to 7.34 lakh and death toll to 15,850 crore.
“The positivity rate is low, cases are low and there is no cause for concern right now in Mumbai,” said additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani.
The BMC machinery is focused on reducing the impact of the third wave, which experts say could occur during the festival season in September-October.
The BMC’s awaited genome sequencing equipment landed from Singapore at the Mumbai airport on Tuesday evening. “We expect the customs clearance within the next 24 hours and the machine should reach Kasturba Hospital for installation either late on Wednesday or early on Thursday,” said Kakani. The Kasturba genome laboratory would help the BMC spot and track SARS-CoV-2 variants early.
“We are in a state of readiness for any rise in cases, if at all. We will have no shortage of beds as our jumbo centres are prepared for this,” Kakani said.
With the cases stabilising and even declining in many parts of the state, the government is expected to issue revised orders lifting certain restrictions in districts with low positivity rate and high vaccination average.
The state is expected to extend shop timings, dine-in timings for restaurants and even allow local train travel for more people.