A BMC health worker collects swab sample of an outstation passenger for COVID-19 test at CSMT railway station. (PTI)Mumbai Live News: With 15,166 fresh Covid-19 cases, Mumbai on Wednesday recorded the highest-ever single-day spike since the pandemic began. The highest number of infections previously recorded in the city in a single day was on April 4 last year, when 11,163 cases were registered. On Wednesday, Mumbai also recorded three deaths. The city now has 61,923 active cases.
As coronavirus infections surged in Mumbai, the city could witness a peak between January 6 to 13 and take a month for the cases to see a decline, according to researchers at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). Sandeep Juneja, senior professor, School of Technology and Computer Science, at the TIFR, said the peak fatalities could be in February, but it is expected to be around 30 to 50 per cent less than what was recorded during the deadly second wave between March to May last year.
“Cases in Mumbai could peak between January 6 to 13 and they are likely to come down to lower levels in around a month. The peak fatalities are expected to be around 30 to 50 per cent less than what was witnessed during the second (delta) wave,” Juneja, who is involved in COVID-19 modelling for the city, said. He, however, did not comment on the number of cases that the city is expected to witness during the peak between January 6 to 13.
In other news, Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale said the Twitter handles pertaining to the website that hosted photos of Muslim women along with derogatory comments led people to the site. “The accused posted the links of the website on Twitter accounts made with forged identities. The accused had put up photos of women with derogatory comments with intention to harass them,” he said.
A team of cyber police officials from the Mumbai Crime Branch Wednesday arrested one more accused from Uttarakhand for allegedly posting obscene and derogatory content on an application, which hosted doctored photographs and objectionable comments targeting Muslim women in the country.
The Cordelia cruise ship returned from Goa to Mumbai after 66 passengers on board tested positive for COVID-19. (Express photo by Amit Chakravarty)
With the surge in COVID-19 cases, bank unions on Wednesday demanded a five-day week for banking operations and capping the attendance of the workforce to 50 per cent in Maharashtra till the situation improves.
In a letter to the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC), the United Forum of Bank Unions (Maharashtra State) also urged to consider restricting banking hours till 2 pm.
This will help in reducing the customer interaction time at the branches/ offices and will, therefore, reduce the risk of contamination among the employees of banks and customers, it said.
Bank of Maharashtra is the SLBC convenor in the state.
The forum said the bankers, being in close contact with the public in general, are more prone to the infection, it said. (PTI)
An ACP-rank officer, named by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh in his letter accusing then Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh of corruption, told an inquiry commission here on Wednesday that Sachin Waze was an "obedient" and "high-performing" officer.
Singh, in his letter to the Maharashtra Chief Minister, had claimed that Assistant Commissioner of Police Sanjay Patil was one of the officers whom Deshmukh had asked to collect money from bars and restaurants.
Testifying before the Justice (retd) K U Chandiwal commission which is probing these allegations, ACP Patil also said he had not come across any adverse remark about Waze from his superiors.
Patil also denied any knowledge of a meeting called by Waze or any other subordinate police officers under him to discuss the alleged extortion demand made by Deshmukh. Patil made these statements during cross examination by Waze.
There was a WhatsApp group of Mumbai crime branch officers, and everybody above the rank of unit in-charge were its members, he said. "Good work such as raids on hookah parlours and pubs was discussed in such groups, and efforts of the concerned officers were appreciated," ACP Patil said.
But superior officials also made adverse remarks some times for poor performance or misconduct, he added.
"Between October 2020 and March 2021, I had noticed good work of officers of the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU), including that of CIU officer Sachin Waze. Comments of appreciation were also made for Sachin Waze (on the WhatsApp group)," Patil said.
"I did not notice any adverse remarks to (made in respect of) Sachin Waze. It can be said that Sachin Waze is a high- performing and obedient officer as recorded in the WhatsApp group," he added. (PTI)
In view of the rise in COVID-19 cases, all non-agricultural, autonomous universities, technical and affiliated colleges in Maharashtra will be shut till February 15, Minister Uday Samant said on Wednesday.
The minister of higher and technical education said classes will continue online and examinations of all these universities and affiliated colleges will also be conducted online during this period.
The state government had arrived at the decision considering the rise in COVID-19 cases in the state, he said.
“Classes of all non-agricultural, autonomous universities, technical and affiliated colleges will be closed till February 15. During this period, education will continue online. Also, examinations of all these universities and affiliated colleges will be conducted online,” Samant said. (PTI)
Maharashtra reports 26,538 new cases, 8 deaths and 5,331 discharges today; Active cases rise to 87,505. State's Omicron case tally at 797 including 330 recoveries
Nearly 160 resident doctors of hospitals in Mumbai run by the Maharashtra government and the local civic corporation have tested positive for coronavirus in the last three days, a senior office-bearer of their association said on Wednesday.
Ganesh Solunke, president of the JJ Hospital chapter of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), said 62 resident physicians of the state-run hospital in central Mumbai have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 72 hours.
Besides, he said 40 resident doctors in King Edward Memorial Hospital, 50 in Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital and another seven in R N Cooper Hospital have also contracted coronavirus (bringing the total to 159). All three hospitals are run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). (PTI)
Mumbai on Tuesday reported 15,166 fresh Covid-19 cases and three deaths. The city now has 61,923 active cases.
143 more people who were on the Goa Cordelia Cruise ship have tested positive for Covid-19. This is apart from the 66 who had already tested positive.
Out of the 66, as many as 41 passengers have quarantined in city hotels and one has been admitted to a civic-run quarantine facility. The remaining passengers are still on board the ship.
Amid the spurt in COVID-19 cases, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said 100 per cent lockdown is not required as of now, but stressed on the need to impose restrictions wherever there is crowding.
Talking to reporters after a meeting with the state's COVID-19 Task Force and officials of the health, planning and finance departments, Tope said the state reported over 16,000 cases on Tuesday, and the number could rise to 25,000 on Wednesday.
He said the silver lining is that 90 per cent of the cases are asymptomatic. Of the 10 per cent symptomatic patients, only one to two per cent require hospitalisation. The state has seen a sharp rise in the daily cases since the last two weeks.
“The Task Force has used the term augmented restrictions, which means if the cases rise like this...we don't have to use the term lockdown. Hundred per cent lockdown is not certainly required as of today,” the minister said.
He said augmented restrictions means that non-essential activities have to be stopped.
“Wherever crowding takes place, there have to be restrictions, but it is not the case that it (curbs) should be brought today,” Tope said. He said recommendations of the Task Force will be discussed with Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. (PTI)
At least 66 staffers and officials of the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST), which operates a fleet of public buses in Mumbai and extended suburbs, have tested positive for coronavirus in the last few days, an official said on Wednesday.
The COVID-19 cases in Mumbai have gone up significantly over the last week. The Maharashtra capital had on Tuesday reported 10,860 cases, the second-highest daily count after April 7, 2021.
As per the information shared by the BEST's chief medical officer, 60 per cent of the 60 staff and officials tested positive during screening at BEST depots, a spokesperson said.
The remaining staffers underwent COVID-19 tests in their personal capacity and were found to be infected, he added.
"Although most of the infected staffers have mild symptoms, we have hospitalised 40 of them as a precautionary measure," the official said, adding that nine employees have already been discharged from hospitals. (PTI)
As coronavirus infections surged in Mumbai, the city could witness a peak between January 6 to 13 and take a month for the cases to see a decline, according to researchers at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).
Sandeep Juneja, senior professor, School of Technology and Computer Science, at the TIFR, said the peak fatalities could be in February, but it is expected to be around 30 to 50 per cent less than what was recorded during the deadly second wave between March to May last year.
The city recorded 10,860 cases, the highest daily count since April 7, 2021, on Tuesday.
"Cases in Mumbai could peak between January 6 to 13 and they are likely to come down to lower levels in around a month. The peak fatalities are expected to be around 30 to 50 per cent less than what was witnessed during the second (delta) wave," Juneja, who is involved in COVID-19 modelling for the city, said.
He, however, did not comment on the number of cases that the city is expected to witness during the peak between January 6 to 13. (PTI)
With coronavirus infections exceeding 15,000 on Wednesday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has asked all private hospitals to restore Covid bed numbers to the peak-level that they had during the second wave of the pandemic.
Municipal Commissioner I S Chahal wrote to private hospitals that since 10-12 per cent patients were symptomatic every day, more hospital beds would be required in the days to come. With over 95% cases being detected in non-slum areas, there would be higher demand for private hospital beds because such patients are reluctant to go to corporation-run hospitals, he wrote. Read more
In view of the surge in COVID-19 cases, the Mumbai civic body has made rapid RT-PCR test mandatory for all the international passengers landing at the international airport here, as per revised guidelines.
The guidelines, issued last week, were effective since Monday, an official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said on Tuesday.
Earlier, the RT-PCR test was mandatory only for international travellers arriving from 'countries at risk'.
On Tuesday, Mumbai reported 10,860 new COVID-19 cases, up 34.37 per cent from a day ago and highest daily count since April 7, 2021, while two more patients succumbed to the infection, as per the civic body. (PTI)
Forty one out of 60 COVID-19 infected passengers on board a cruise ship, which returned to Mumbai from Goa, have so far been shifted to institutional quarantine facilities, a civic spokesperson said.
The other 19 passengers who had tested positive for the viral infection were still on the ship, he said, adding that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) conducted RT-PCR tests of 1,827 people on board the cruise on Tuesday night and their reports were expected later in the day.
Except for the COVID-19 infected people, the civic body did not allow any other passenger to disemark from the ship
60 employees of the BEST, including bus drivers, tested positive for COVID-19, BEST PRO told ANI.
Mumbai Police chief Hemant Nagrale said the accused used Sikh names (like Harpal@Sikh_Khalsa, Sage, Khalsa Supremacist, Jatinder Singh gullar and one more name which cannot be revealed) for all the Twitter handles and email ids. Further, he said an accused said the app was made by Khalsa Singh force. The reason behind the usage of Sikh names is being probed, Nagrale added.
Nagrale refused to comment when asked if the case is connected to the Punjab elections.
Hemant Nagrale, Mumbai Police Commissioner, said not many details about the case can be revealed as it is a sensitive matter. He added that it is also not appropriate to share many details about the investigation as the remaining accused may then destroy evidence.
“If we receive any complaint regarding any more such apps, we will act promptly and take appropriate action,” Nagrale said.
Addressing a press conference, Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale said the Twitter handles pertaining to the website that hosted photos of Muslim women along with derogatory comments led people to the site. “The accused posted the links of the website on Twitter accounts made with forged identities. The accused had put up photos of women with derogatory comments with intention to harass them,” he said.
Nagrale added that one of the accused Vishal Jha is in police custody, while they have five day transit remand for another accused Shweta Singh. “The third accused is being produced in court in Uttarakhand and his transit remand is being taken,” he said.
Mumbai has recorded about 15,400 new cases of COVID 19 as per the tests done on Tuesday, a number that has broken the earlier record.
"We have around 15400 new cases on Wednesday,’’ Municipal Commissioner IS Chahal said. A day ago, 10,860 new cases of COVID and two deaths were recorded.
During the second wave of the pandemic, Mumbai had reported 11,573 cases on April 3, 2021 when the positivity rate was 23 per cent.
With Covid cases rising in the state, testing facilities are feeling the pressure again. The BMC has told laboratories that the turnaround time for RT-PCR tests should be 24 hours, but home visits are already getting delayed and laboratories have begun to hire more personnel to cope with the extra demands.
Sushant Kinra, CEO of Suburban Diagnostics, said, “It is a typical situation in every peak. The first one was very painful as we were not prepared. During the second wave, we built capacity to test more. Calls have now increased five-fold. We are looking for 24-hour turnaround time, and there are restrictions when a person tests positive. The BMC does not allow us to convey until results are uploaded on their platform.” Kinra said they are hiring more people, who are being trained.
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The BMC is going to construct a tree house in a garden owned by Maharashtra Maritime Board near Bandra Fort at Bandstand. The proposal was recently cleared by the district planning and development committee.
BMC assistant commissioner Kiran Dighavkar said Rs 1 crore has been sanctioned from local area development fund of Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray.
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