Mumbai reports 465 new Covid-19 cases, one death

Mumbai on Sunday reported 465 Covid-19 cases and one fatality, taking the tally to 11,27,547 and the toll to 19,659, a civic official said. It is the fifth day in a row when the addition to the tally was more than 400, while the figure for Sunday was slightly lower than the 486 cases reported on Saturday, he said.

Of the 465 cases, only 36 are symptomatic, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official added.

Prime minister Narendra Modi has assured speedy clearances from the Centre to development proposals and timely disbursement of funds to Maharashtra, chief minister Eknath Shinde said on Sunday.

He said the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in the state has now set a target of "Mission 48" for the Lok Sabha polls in 2024 and will work towards achieving that goal.

Addressing a press conference here, the Maharashtra chief minister also announced that projects such as building of farm pond (Jalyukt Shivar) and a grievance redressal portal 'Aaple Sarkar', which ran into delays during the previous government, have been put on fast track.

Shinde said the 'Aaple Sarkar' (our government) portal, a single window service delivery platform of all notified major and micro municipal services, will go live on August 15.

The Maharashtra cyber department has asked people to remain alert against online frauds and not to respond to video calls, friend requests from unknown persons and threatening calls from people posing as police officers. The state cyber department has received several such complaints and also of people being duped under the pretext of electricity bills, through loan apps and online marketplaces, an official from the department said.

Even as the Centre has written to states over rising cases of Covid, BMC executive health officer Dr Mangala Gomare told TOI: “Cases have crossed 400 for the last four days, but this could be due to weather changes or changed disease patterns. ” The daily positivity rate in Mumbai has risen to 5% again after dropping to 2% about 10 days back. The number of daily hospitalisations have increased from around 20 to 37 on Saturday.

Residents of a 16-storey building at Ghatkopar had to be evacuated after the retaining wall of their highrise crashed during excavation of adjoining structure. Officials from N ward said the incident occurred while undertaking pIn a similar incident, a landslide near an under-construction building at Pedder Road in June this year resulted in a cracked footpath close to a hillock, a few buildings away from Prabhu Kunj, where the late singer Lata Mangeshkar lived.

The Union health ministry has flagged off a rising trend in Covid cases across Maharashtra and a drop in testing numbers in at least 20 districts. The central nudge comes at a time when Mumbai is witnessing a doubling of cases: while 486 cases were registered on Saturday, the tally was 286 infections just a week ago (July 30). The letter, signed by Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, said the week-onweek tally of cases in Mumbai has risen from 1,806 between July 22 and 28 to 2,087 between July 29 and August 5.

Maharashtra on Saturday reported 1,931 fresh Covid-19 cases and nine fatalities, taking the tally to 80,57,920 and the toll to 1,48,138, the state health department said. A day before, the state had reported 2,024 infections and five fatalities due to Covid-19.