Active cases in Navi drop down by 28%

NAVI MUMBAI: Over the last two weeks, active cases in Navi Mumbai have come down by 28%. With daily cases below 100 in Navi Mumbai, currently only one active case in Indira Nagar is being reported while five of them are in Chinchpada and Ithanpada slums.

Currently, Navi Mumbai has 1,165 active cases. The same was 1,610 a month ago and 1,485 on July 13. The daily positivity rate has come down to 0.90% from 1.75% reported a month ago.

The overall positivity was 6.92% on June 30, which is now 5.79%. The doubling rate, which was 648, is now 1,048 days. From 5,000 per day testing, the corporation has now increased the testing to 7,000 per day.

With increased testing, contact tracing and targeted testing, the corporation has been able to bring down the active cases of the area and also delay the third wave. “The idea is to delay the start of third wave as much as possible. This gives us time to vaccinate maximum number of people, especially the senior citizens who are most vulnerable and also make arrangements to combat the third wave,” NMMC chief, Abhijit Bangar, said.

On Thursday, Bangar paid a personal visit to supervise the work under way at civic hospitals in Airoli and Nerul that have been converted into dedicated Covid hospitals ahead of the anticipated third wave.

The Covid wards at the hospitals will have 200 ICU beds.

“The ICU section is being set up on the fourth and fifth floors of Airoli’s Rajmata Jijau civic hospital and on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors of Maasaheb Meenatai Thackeray Hospital in Nerul. It has been directed to officials to deploy personnel in three shifts to ensure that the work is completed by August 12,” Bangar added. Of the 200 ICU beds at each hospital, 80 will be reserved for paediatric cases and a special ward with 50 beds is created to treat pre- and postpregnancy Covid positive cases.