Mumbai recorded 1,002 cases on Tuesday, pushing its COVID-19 tally to 32,974 cases. The city’s death toll reached 1,065 with 39 more deaths.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner IS Chahal, who addressed the media on Tuesday, said their new mantra is to ‘chase the virus’ by focussing on institutional quarantining of contacts in slums and containment zones.
“Contact tracing has to be strong. We are now aiming at institutional quarantine of 15 contacts of one positive patient from slums. Earlier, this ratio was 1:4 or 1:5,” said Mr. Chahal, adding this will break the chain of infection.
The increasing number of deaths has been a cause of concern with Mumbai losing an average of 29 lives every day to the infection. Of the 39 deaths reported on Tuesday, 28 were men and 11 were women.
As many as 25 patients had co-morbid conditions, which made their recovery difficult. The city’s case fatality rate currently stands at 3.2%. Mr. Chahal said efforts are on to further reduce the rate to 3%, which is the national average.
1.74 lakh tests done
Till date, Mumbai has carried out 1,74,841 tests in seven government laboratories and 13 private laboratories. The rate of positivity stood at 18%.
Mr. Chahal said the city is carrying out 13,000 tests per million, which is much higher than 4,800 tests per million in Delhi or 2,800 tests per million in Bengaluru. He said private laboratories, who were keeping a very high backlog and delaying reports, have been instructed to fall in line. He said many laboratories were giving out reports after four-five days and in some cases, they took up to 10 days.
The laboratories have now been asked to strictly follow the 24-hour cycle in giving out reports. “They should not take more than they can chew,” Mr. Chahal said.
Dharavi crosses 1,600-mark
Dharavi went past the 1,600-mark on Tuesday, as it reported 38 new cases.
The total number of cases has reached 1,621 cases, with 60 deaths. Most of the new cases were from Matunga Labour Camp and Koliwada. Among the new cases was a six-year-old boy from Matunga Labour Camp, a 15-year-old girl from Subhash Nagar, and a four-year-old boy from Chamda Bazar. Mahim recorded 24 cases, taking the total figure to 375, while Dadar reported six new cases, pushing the total number to 245. Dadar and Mahim fall in G North ward as Dharavi. Meanwhile, G South ward that consists of Worli reported 47 new cases on Tuesday, pushing the total to 1,853 cases.
63 in Navi Mumbai
The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) on Tuesday reported 63 new cases and two deaths, taking the total number of cases to 1,774, while the death toll reached 54. The two casualties were a 16-year-old from Kopri village in Turbhe and 51-year-old from Airoli. Around 23 patients were discharged on Tuesday, pushing the figure to 802. Currently, there are 918 active cases under the NMMC. Till now, 10,539 people have been tested under the NMMC, of whom 7,897 have been found negative and 866 reports are pending.
Under the Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC), eight new cases were found on Tuesday, making a total of 401. As many as 17 were discharged, taking the total number to 234. Till now, 2,365 people have been tested under the PMC, of whom 25 reports are pending. The number of deaths is 18.
Under Panvel rural, while two were discharged on Tuesday, only one positive case was found. The total number of positive cases is 310, of which 231 have recovered and five have died.
( With inputs fromRaina Assainar )
