City records only 587 cases; BMC says tech issue
MUMBAI: The city has reported 587 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, its lowest daily figure in the past 105 days since May 12, when Mumbai’s daily count was 426.
However, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) clarified in its daily evening media bulletin on Tuesday, that the low number of cases is due to a “technical issue” on the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) website.
“Complete case data is not available today, it will be uploaded tomorrow,” the bulletin mentioned.
“[The numbers are] based on information received from various hospitals and data uploaded on the ICMR portal by certified labs/covid portal of GOI (Government of India) by district,” said the civic body, adding that the data is subject to change after scrutiny and an ongoing verification process.
As of Tuesday, the total Covid count for Mumbai was 137,683, of which 17,938 are active cases. Mumbai also reported 35 new deaths due to Covid-19 on Tuesday, taking the toll to 7,477. The case fatality rate in Mumbai is 5.4% and the recovery rate is 81%.
Municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said, “We should wait and watch before coming to any inference. We cannot be complacent and should never lower our guard.” On August 24, Mumbai conducted 5,960 Covid-19 tests, lower than the average daily of 8,000-9,000.
“We are conducting 8,000 to 9,000 tests every day. BMC is trying hard to make it to 12,000 to 14,000 tests daily, but unfortunately, people are not coming forward to get tested. Around 80% of the people are asymptomatic, and the number of symptomatic people has reduced,” said Chahal.
Of the 35 deaths on Tuesday, 27 patients had comorbidities; 22 were men and 13 were women; seven deaths were of patients between the ages of 40 and 60 years, and 28 victims were above 60 years of age.
The overall growth rate of Mumbai is 0.79%, and the doubling rate is 88 days. As of Tuesday, there are 599 active containment zones and 5,936 sealed buildings.