Mumbai: Registering single-biggest jump since the beginning of the pandemic, Mumbai on Thursday saw 522 more people testing positive, taking the total number of coronavirus cases to 4,025 or 65% of Maharashtra's total. Other places in the state recorded 256 new Covid-19 cases that increased the tally to 6,427.
The previous largest single-day spike for Mumbai was on April 19, with 456 cases. BMC officials said that fourteen patients also died on Thursday, which took the death toll to 283. The number of deaths in the city rose by six to 167, officials said.
Of the 14 deaths, three were under 40 years of age, nine between 40-59, and two above 60. Seven of them also had diabetes, hypertension, asthma or heart disease.
Among those who tested positive was Maharashtra Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad. According to a report in Indian Express, he was admitted to hospital on Tuesday night, 10 days after he had put himself under home quarantine after coming in contact with a person who tested positive for coronavirus.
The report quoted sources close to the NCP leader as saying that he was moved to a private hospital after developing fever. A hospital spokesperson said his condition was stable.
The BMC, meanwhile, has come out with a mathematical projection that the city’s cases could hit 70,000-odd in about a month from now.
According to a report in Times of India, the civic team calculated the doubling rate using data of over a week to arrive at the seven-day figure. "We fear the cases could climb to 70,000 or 80,000 within a month or so," an official was quoted as saying. "There’s no scientific reasons to support this mathematical calculation. But such projection helps us prepare for the worst."
After Mumbai, Pune, which remains the second worst-hit in the state as it saw five deaths, while one death each was registered in Nandurbar, Navi Mumbai and Dhule.
According to media reports, in Nandurbar, a 32-year-old trader died on Wednesday night, within a day of testing positive. Of the state’s 6,427 cases, over 120, or around 2%, are critical.
The Centre has declared Mumbai as one of the hotspots of Covid-19 in the country and various measures have been taken by the authorities to contain the spread of the virus in its densely populated slums.
According to a BMC release, the civic body has created as many as 813 containment zones, where at least one or more positive or suspected case of COVID-19 were found till April 21.
Restrictions have been put on the movement of people in these zones to avoid spread of the pandemic.
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