State, city see slight drop in COVID cases on Monday

A day after the state and city reported the highest singleday spike in COVID cases in the last three months, there was a slight drop in the number of daily cases on Monday.

In the last 24 hours, Maharashtra has reported 5,210 new infections and 18 COVID-19 deaths, pushing its overall count of positive cases to 21,06,094 and 51,806 fatalities. As many as 5,035 patients recovered and were discharged from the hospital across the state, increasing the recoveries to 19,99,982 with a recovery rate of 94.96 per cent.

Mumbai reported 761 new coronavirus cases and four deaths on Monday, increasing the total positive count to 3,19,888 and 11,446 fatalities so far. However, the doubling rate of the city has dropped to 321 days from 346 days, while the weekly growth rate has increased to 0.22 per cent.

Civic officials said there are various reasons for the rise in cases, like careless attitude of people towards COVID-19 protocols, allowing the general public to travel in local trains, opening of malls, offices, hotels and restaurants.

BMC's Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said as restrictions were eased, crowds were witnessed at various marriage functions, other social events, and in malls, restaurants, pubs and clubs. The number of passengers in local trains also increased from eight lakh (in Januaryend) to 22 lakh (after all members of the public were allowed in February), he said.

"Many people are behaving as if the COVID-19 threat is not there. They are not following protocols at public places," Kakani said. According to the BMC, it has already increased daily COVID-19 tests from around 15,000 earlier this month to over 22,000 now. “Among the positive cases, the number of asymptomatic persons is more,” Kakani added.

Since last week, the BMC intensified action against those found without masks in public places, and started a crackdown on establishments like marriage halls, hotels and restaurants.