City reports 488 Covid cases, 4 more deaths

There was a spurt in the daily Covid-19 cases across the city on Wednesday, with 488 new cases and four fatalities being reported in 24 hours, taking the total case count to 7,39,364 with 16,063 deaths so far. Meanwhile, the doubling rate of Mumbai dropped to 1,187 days, while the recovery and weekly growth rate remained constant at 97 per cent and 0.06 per cent.

Maharashtra also witnessed a surge in positive cases on Wednesday, with 3,608 new infections and 48 deaths being recorded in 24 hours, pushing its tally to 65,31,237, with 1,38,664 fatalities till now.

Dr Subhash Salunke, former advisor to the state government on Covid-19, said a spurt could be witnessed between October 1 and 10. “Though major parts of the state have developed immunity against the virus, which was seen in the recent sero survey in Mumbai, the risk of surging cases is still there. It could be witnessed till 15 days after the Ganesh festival which ended on September 20. Many districts in Marathwada and Vidarbha have developed herd immunity,” he said.

Senior health experts from the civic health department said the next two weeks will determine whether there is any spurt owing to the crowding in Ganesh festival. “Since the Delta strain transmits rapidly, the early trends are seen in the first few days of the festival. It is a good sign that there is no rise seen in the number of cases from the beginning of the festival. But still, it could be a ‘work in progress’ and we will have to wait for two more weeks to get an idea if there would be any spurt in cases,” he said.