Mumbai News

As Mumbai’s Covid case count surges to 20,000, BMC says it could double soon – Times of India

MUMBAI: A total of 1,170 people were hospitalised on Thursday in Mumbai, which was a marginal drop from Wednesday’s 1,218 hospitalisations. However, more than 100 (106) were put on oxygen support. While the overall bed occupancy of the city rose to nearly 17%, almost a quarter of the 2,636 ICU beds are now taken. The city’s biggest slum cluster, Dharavi, reported 107 cases, the highest ever one-day count since the start of the pandemic.
Civic officials said that considering the daily growth rate—cases increased by 31.7% in 24 hours — Mumbai could see more than double of 20,000 cases in a day in the next few days. “Our daily highest projection was 20,000 that we reached rapidly. There is a possibility we may see double that number, given that cases are increasing by 30-40%,” said Suresh Kakani, BMC additional municipal commissioner. The city’s active cases reached 79,260, and it is likely Mumbai will breach its previous high of active cases of 91,100 — seen during the second wave peak — in the next 24 hours.

Kakani said that although cases are galloping, the corporation has not hit the panic button as the infected are mostly asymptomatic. On Thursday, 85% of the new cases didn’t have any symptoms. “Of the new cases, merely 5% require admission,” he said, adding that almost 35,000 beds are available. About the crunch of ICU beds in the private sector, he said, “Beds are available, but people may not get rooms of their liking such as single or deluxe. Our request would be to focus on the treatment rather than the stay”.
Even as the state chalks out curbs to curtail transmission, health minister Rajesh Tope clarified that there was no plan to shut down Mumbai’s local trains. Also, there were no plans for a statewide or district lockdown. However, he said night curfew and weekend curfew was discussed at a review meeting with NCP chief Sharad Pawar, but a final decision would be taken by CM Uddhav Thackeray. Restricting categories of train commuters and reducing attendance in offices and timings of shops and restaurants are some of the curbs under discussion. A decision is expected before the weekend.
State officials also maintained that despite a rise in cases, there hasn’t been a significant jump in oxygen usage. Comparing the severity of waves, Dr Pradeep Awate, the state’s surveillance officer, said around 11% of patients were on oxygen and ventilator when the state had 85,144 active cases during the second wave. In comparison, 4% were on oxygen and life-support when active cases crossed 87,505 on Wednesday.
Nearly 84% of the state’s cases were detected from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Kalyan-Dombivli on Thursday reported over 1,000 (1,172) Covid-19 cases in a day, taking its cumulative tally of cases to 1,47,521. The silver lining was that there were no deaths reported. Thane and Navi Mumbai reported 2,180 and 2,297 cases respectively.
(Inputs by Priyanka Kakodkar and Pradeep Gupta)

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/as-city-case-count-surges-to-20k-bmc-says-it-could-double-soon/articleshow/88743784.cms