City sees drop in cases for second day in a row

There has been a marginal rise in the number of Covid cases across the state on Tuesday. As many as 22,122 new cases and 601 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, pushing its tally to 56,26,155 with 90,349 fatalities till now.

However, Mumbai witnessed a drop in the number of Covid cases for the second consecutive day. On Tuesday, 1,037 new cases and 37 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 6,99,904, with 14,708 fatalities till now.

Meanwhile, the recovery rate has increased to 94%, with 1,427 recoveries across the city. With this, the total recovery count stands at 6,55,425.

However, the Covid situation in the state is improving. The number of daily cases has been on the decline and it is currently down to half of what it was at the beginning of this month.

According to the statistics provided by the state health department, in the last one week (from May 17 to 23), the average number of new cases recorded in the state has been 28,777; whereas in the first week of May, the average was 56,326. In the second week of May, the number of cases dropped to 44,212 a day on an average.

Dr Subhash Salunkhe, state advisor on Covid-19 and former director-general of health services said, “There is no doubt that testing is very important, but testing apparatus also has its limitations. There are operational difficulties as we cannot stretch them beyond a limit. We are also facing challenges in contact tracing as the entire machinery is overburdened with multiple responsibilities such as vaccination. We are trying to find alternatives to deal with the situation.”

Mumbai has been witnessing a higher daily fatality rate since last month. The increase in the number of deaths has been attributed to the spike in cases reported in April and first half of May. Also, there was a rise in critical patients being infected during this period.