Compared to Apr, city cases drop 76%, deaths up 61%
MUMBAI: The number of Covid-19 cases recorded in the first 20 days of May has dropped by around 76% when compared with the first 20 days of April, which was considered to be the peak of the city’s second wave, according to the state health department data. However, in the same period, the number of deaths has gone up by 61%.
On Friday, 1,415 cases were reported followed by 54 deaths. The total case tally in the city is 694,200 while the death toll is 14,464. The recovery rate in the city is 93% with 649,128 recoveries.
The city’s fatality rate is 2.08% and there are 28,579 active cases in the city.
The daily positivity rate in April, during the second wave in the city, has gone down from around 25 to 15% to around 4%, as of Friday. The daily positivity rate was 4.27% on Friday, as 1,415 samples were tested positive for Covid, of the 33,078 samples tested.
According to the data, between May 1 and May 20, 40,417 cases were reported, compared to 170,640 in the same period during April. Further, 1,195 deaths were reported between May 1 and May 20 compared to 738 during the same period in April.
In the same period, Mumbai reported 897,951 number of tests between April 1 and April 20 compared to 557,817 tests during the same period in May. The number of discharges decreased in the month of May compared to April, owing to a fall in the number of cases. Between April 1 and April 20, 141,732 discharges were reported compared to 69,292 discharges between the same period in May.
Owing to the increase in the number of deaths, the state task force has termed the Covid scenario in the city to be worrying. The state task force member Dr Shashank Joshi said though the overall fatality rate is not increasing, number of deaths on a week-on-week basis is on a rise.
“We need to be vigilant, as despite in decline in the number of cases, we are seeing an increase in the number of deaths. This is very worrying. Two major reasons for this can be - late treatment or self-treatment, and the patients who have got infected last month during the peak, succumbing to the virus now after prolonged treatment on ventilator and ICU beds,” Dr Joshi said.
Another expert, Dr Madhav Sathe, former microbiology professor at Nair Hospital said, “Nowadays we are also seeing many patients being referred to Mumbai for treatment. This could be one of the reasons increase in the number of deaths in the city. However, the concern remains on those getting self-treatment via searching on the internet and those going to the hospital late.”