City records 19,780 cases
MUMBAI: The city on Thursday reported 19,780 new Covid-19 cases, making it the second consecutive day with the highest ever cases reported on a single day since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
Four deaths in the city took the total death toll to 16,388. The city’s recovery rate is 88% with 753,354 recoveries, and mortality rate is 1.92%. The number of active cases in the city is 79,260. Eighty-five per cent of the cases reported on Thursday are asymptomatic and among the 15% that are symptomatic, 1,170 required hospitalisation.
Currently, out of the 35,594 beds in public and private hospitals in the city, 5,998 are occupied and the bed occupancy rate is 16.8%. Further, 57 new Omic r o n v a r i a n t c a s e s wer e reported in the city on Monday, according to state health department data.
Significantly, as the number of Covid-19 cases has risen over the past few days, the number of citizens under home quarantine has also seen a spike — from around 33,000 citizens under home quarantine on December 16, the figure went up to 332,000 on January 5.
The spike in the number of citizens under home quarantine is also due to a majority of the cases being asymptomatic. Additionally, these figures also include close contacts of those who have tested positive and international travellers who have been home quarantined for seven days.
The increase in the number of cases i n high-rises has resulted in their close contacts also quarantining themselves resulting in a spike in numbers
Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner of the BMC, said, “Hospitalisation is under control and a majority have mild symptoms owing to which these patients are being home quarantined. Around 93% of the total caseload currently is from high-rises and the rest are from chawls and slums. We will wait and monitor for two or three days more before thinking about any restrictions.”
Meanwhile, 462 buildings in the city have been sealed with the highest number in Malabar Hill, Grant Road, Andheri West and Vile Parle West followed by 6,254 sealed floors and 20 containment zones that include slums and chawls.
The BMC also issued an official guideline on Thursday to all nodal officers of vaccination centres stating that it will start inoculating health and frontline workers and senior citizens (above 60 years of age) with co-morbidities with the precautionary dose of the Covid-19 vaccine from January 10, onwards.
An eligible individual is one who has taken both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine and has completed nine months since the final dose.