Mumbai sees 60.71% dip in active cases

There were 70,373 active cases as on April 26, which dropped to 27,649 as on May 25

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The decision to enforce the lockdown in the state was taken at the right time, otherwise the situation would have been different.

Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer

As a silver lining to the lockdown, Maharashtra and Mumbai have seen a 53.41 per cent and 60.71 per cent drop in the number of active COVID-19 cases, respectively, in the last 30 days. State and BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials have attributed many factors to the fall in active cases, of which the implementation of strict restrictions and Breaking The Chain mission have played a vital role. Moreover, for the last one week, daily cases in the city and the state have been below 1,500 and 30,000, respectively. It is expected to dip further by next week.

The data analysed by the Free Press Journal from the period of April 26 to May 25 revealed that there were 70,373 active cases in the city as on April 26, which dropped to 27,649 as on May 25. Similarly, active cases in the state dropped from 6,74,770 to 3,14,368 in the same period.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, BMC, said that the restrictions have helped curb it. “We only urge citizens to follow the COVID-19 norms strictly so that the trend continues downward. Moreover, 87 per cent of the active cases are asymptomatic. Only 2 per cent to 3 per cent are critical and need to be hospitalised,” he said. Kakani further said their main concern is now to contain the mortality rate. All COVID-19 hospitals have been directed to follow Mission Save Lives. “Every death is unfortunate. However, if we see the overall picture, the daily death rate is still under 0.6 per cent. Even our overall case fatality rate, which was 5 per cent in October-November, 2020, has dropped to 2.1 per cent,” said Kakani.

Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer, said that the number of recoveries have been more than the new cases in the state in the last few days. “The decision to enforce the lockdown in the state was taken at the right time, otherwise the situation would have been different. We have taken several measures to curb cases, such as increasing testing, tracing and treatment. Earlier, there were more than 60,000 cases. However, now, the number of fresh cases is below 30,000, which is a good sign,” he said.