Mumbai sees 897 new Covid-19 cases; 1,305 bldgs, floors sealed
MUMBAI: The city continued its upward Covid-19 graph on Saturday as it reported 897 new Covid-19 infections, its sharpest single-day spike since November 29 (940 infections), taking its tally to 318,207. Mumbai also reported three Covid-19 deaths, taking the toll to 11,440, at a case fatality rate (CFR) of 3.5%.
Amid the recent spike in cases, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has sealed 1,305 buildings and floors in the past fortnight, with 71,838 households in them. A total of 2,749 cases have been reported from these sealed places. Mumbai has 5,466 active infections and its recovery rate is 94%.
Reacting to the recent spurt in cases, municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Thursday directed the civic administration to adopt a slew of measures to curb the spread of the infection, including tightening containment-zone rules, quarantine norms and strictly imposing fines on those not wearing masks in public places.
The doubling rate of cases in the city has dropped to 371 days, down from 393 on Friday, 417 on Thursday, 445 on Tuesday, and 455 on Monday. The growth rate of cases has now increased to 0.19%, up from 0.18% on Friday, 0.17% on Thursday, 0.16% on Tuesday and 0.15% on Monday. On Saturday, Mumbai conducted 18,400 Covid-19 tests, 3,117,294 in total since the beginning of the lockdown (March 2020).
In a statement on Thursday,
Chahal had said, “Although the spread of Covid-19 in Mumbai is under control, there has been a surge in the number of cases in the past few days. Hence, all BMC machineries need to be extra vigilant.”
Chahal said that in comparison to June-july 2020, the spread of Covid-19 in the city is still under control. “As public life returns to normalcy, it becomes all the more important for citizens to follow all prevention norms. It is also pertinent to take stringent action against offenders to limit the spread of the virus.”
As of February 18, BMC’S Covid-19 dashboard showed there were 321 sealed buildings in the city. A ward officer, requesting anonymity, said, “We are now reporting to the head office data on sealed floors as well, along with sealed buildings. Hence the number has drastically gone up in two days, from 321 to 1,305 containment buildings and floors.”
Ward officers implementing the tightened containment measures submit daily reports of action taken in their respective wards to the municipal commissioner
The highest number of sealed buildings and floors, 233, are in T-ward corresponding to the area of Mulund, followed by 125 each in the P-south ward of Goregaon and the N ward of Ghatkopar. The D ward of Malabar Hill has 110 sealed buildings and buildings with sealed floors, followed by 106 in R-central ward in Borivli.
Over the next few days, BMC will double the number of clean-up marshals patrolling the city’s streets from the present 2,400 to 4,800, who will fine people if they do not wear masks in public places.
On Friday, 13,592 people were penalised for not wearing masks and BMC collected ₹27,18,440 in fines in a single day. Fines totalling ₹31,79,43,400 were collected between March 2020 and February 2021, from 1,571,679 people found without masks in public spaces.