Mumbai: 72% fall in Covid cases in June compared to May; city to remain under level 3 – Hindustan Times

The city has recorded a 72% fall in the number of Covid-19 cases in the first 24 days of June, as compared to the first 24 days of May, reveals the state health department data. Further, the number of deaths has also gone down drastically in June, as compared to May. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has announced that the city will continue to remain under level-3 restrictions, a day after the Maharashtra government tightened lockdown norms.

According to the data, between May 1 and May 24, 42,991 cases were reported in the city, which went down to 11,921 cases in June. Subsequently, in the same period during May, 1,356 deaths were reported that went down to 488 in June.

In the same period, overall 1,282,906 tests were carried out in the city, of which, 658,210 were carried out in May and 624,696 were carried out in June.

According to BMC officers, though the cases have gone down, they will have to remain on high alert owing to the detection of Delta plus variant of Covid-19. Owing to the same, Maharashtra tightened its lockdown norms on Friday deciding to impose stricter lockdown norms, reducing the five-level relaxation plan to three.

The first two levels, which had maximum relaxations, have been removed till further order, according to a notification issued by chief secretary Sitaram Kunte on Friday.

Post this, municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal issued orders stating that Mumbai will continue to remain under level-3 restrictions until further orders. This, when the positivity rate in Mumbai (3.96%) and oxygen bed occupancy (26.04%).

According to level 3 restrictions, essential shops and establishments can remain open till 4pm on all days, non-essential shops and establishments can remain open till 4pm on weekdays, restaurants are allowed to operate dine-in with 50% capacity, till 4pm on weekdays, and can allow takeaways and home deliveries after. Travelling via local trains is restricted for medical and essential services, gyms, salons and spas are open till 4pm, operational on 50% capacity without the usage of the air conditioner.

Further, the BMC predicts that the third wave of Covid-19 will hit the city anytime by September 2021. The BMC has said it will scale Covid beds by over 10,000 and is in the process of setting up 16 oxygen plants across the city. On Saturday, the city reported 648 cases followed by 15 deaths taking the case tally to 719,610 cases and 15,383 deaths. The city’s recovery rate is 95% and the fatality rate is 2.13%. There are 19,943 active cases in the city.

Dr Madhav Sathe, a microbiology professor at Nair Hospital’s college said, “The decreasing cases do indicate that the second wave is getting weaker day by day. In the country, we are vaccinating around 50 lakh citizens daily and if this same trend continues for the next 6 to 7 weeks, I feel that the effect of a third wave will be very mild. However, the effect of third wave will also depend on the covid appropriate behaviour being followed by the citizens. Until a substantial amount of the population is not vaccinated, we should avoid gatherings and going to crowded places.”