City sees 1,297 new cases and 117 deaths

BMC HAS ALSO STARTED SERO-SURVEILLANCE IN THREE WARDS IN MUMBAI CITY

MUMBAI: The city on Friday recorded 1,297 new Covid-19 cases and 117 deaths, taking the total case count to 72,175 and the death toll to 4,179.

There are 28,244 active Covid-19 cases in Mumbai, which is 39.13% of the total Covid-19 cases in the city so far.

Around 39,744 patients have recovered and have been discharged. Mumbai’s recovery rate is 55%, and its mortality rate is 5.7%, higher than Maharashtra’s mortality, which is 4.65%.

Mumbai is contributing to 47% of Maharashtra’s total Covid cases and 58% of its total deaths.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) claims to have screened over 1.04 crore people in the past three months, including 4.36 lakh senior citizens.

In terms of contact tracing, BMC said it has traced 12.71 lakh close contacts of nearly 70,000 positive cases. Of the 12.71 lakh, around 9.30 lakh are low-risk contacts, and 3.41 lakh are highrisk contacts.

Of the 117 deaths in the city, 44 were reported in the past 48 hours from Friday evening, and 73 were added to the cumulative figure from the previous period after reconciling the data. Data released by BMC stated that 88 of the victims had comorbidities. Of the total, 80 were men and 37 were women. While seven victims were below 40 years, 69 were above 60 years, and 41 were between 40 years and 60 years.

To get a clear idea of the Covid-19 exposure in the city, BMC has also started sero-surveillance in Mumbai in three wards of M/west corresponding to Chembur, F/north corresponding to Wadala and Sewri, and R/ North ward of Borivli.

The survey will be conducted in partnership with NITI-AAYOG, and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai.

“This study will provide information about exposure to infection and progression of the disease in the population, which will be critical to make informed public health policy decisions,” the BMC said in a statement.

For the survey, the civic body will collect 10,000 random blood samples from slum and nonslum areas of residents above the age of 12. The samples will be sent to Kasturba Molecular Diagnostics Lab and Translational Health Science and Technology Institute in Faridabad to detect antibodies. If the antibodies are present, it is a sign of exposure to Covid-19.

The same survey will also be done separately for health care and frontline workers in these wards.