City records 8,844 new Covid cases

MUMBAI: After 8,646 cases on Thursday, the city on Friday again reported more than 8,000 cases, with its 24-hour tally at 8,844. The city also reported 19 deaths in the city. With the number of cases going up, the daily growth rate in the city has gone up to over 18%, with active cases going above 57,000.

The increase in cases has also resulted in bed occupancy going up to around 72%, however, along with it, the recovery rate in the last one month has also fallen down to 84% from 94% in January. The growth rate in the city was around 5-7% that went up to around 8-10% mid-March, from where it has now gone up to 18%, as of Thursday. This is partially owing to tests and tracing, but also due to crowding at several places including markets, said a BMC official.

The official added, “Despite urging citizens not to crowd, we are witnessing crowding in vegetable markets, including Dadar. We are conducting random testing citizens at crowded places, including malls, markets etc.”

On Friday, for the second consecutive day, Dadar reported 100 cases. On Thursday, Dadar had reported 104 cases. According to BMC’s data, Dadar has reported 6,284 cases in the last one year of which 5,098 have been discharged. Neighbouring Dharavi on Friday saw 73 cases, taking the total to 5,058 cases, of which 4,047 have been discharged.

According to the state health department data, the city’s case tally is 432,367 and the toll is 11,727 followed by 361,985 recoveries and 57,687 active cases. Mayor Kishori Pednekar on Thursday had warned about strict restrictions, including shutting of malls, religious places, restrictions on opening of shops followed by travel restrictions for non-essential workforce. However, the BMC has maintained they have not received any such directive from the state.

Dr Siddarth Paliwal, a citybased physician, said, “If the tests are doubled, we will see double the cases in February or January. To ensure the spread is limited, Central government needs to allow vaccination for all age groups.”