Mumbai reports 20,971 COVID-19 cases, six deaths

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Mumbai on Friday recorded 20, 971 new coronavirus infections, the highest one-day spike to date, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

The city also saw six deaths due to the pandemic, highest in a day in the last two months, said a BMC release.

The cases went up by 790 compared to Thursday.

The caseload of the country’s financial capital rose to 8,74,780, while death toll reached 16,394.

On Thursday, the city had reported 20,181 new infections, which was a new record, and four deaths.

On November 4, 2021, the metropolis had recorded six fatalities.

Speaking to a Marathi news channel, Mumbai municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said a new wave of the pandemic began from December 21, 2021, when the city recorded 327 new daily cases.

Since then, cases have risen 6,313.14 per cent.

Chahal, however, maintained that there was no need for lockdown as the death rate, bed occupancy and medical oxygen demand were low.

The rise in daily cases is 230.40 per cent since January 1, 2022, when Mumbai logged 6,347 new COVID-19 cases.

But of 20,971 new cases found on Friday, 17,616 or 85 per cent were asymptomatic and only 1,395 patients were admitted to hospitals while only 88 were put on oxygen support, the BMC said.

The number of tests has been ramped up too. As per the BMC release, 72,442 coronavirus tests were carried out in the city in the last 24 hours, compared to 67,487 on Thursday.

With this the tally of COVID-19 tests conducted so far climbed to 1,40,64,537.

The BMC also highlighted that 6,531 of 35,645 hospital beds, or 18.3 per cent, are occupied in the city.

The overall growth rate of COVID-19 cases rose to 1.23 per cent for the period between December 31, 2021 to January 6, 2022, while the caseload doubling rate slipped to 56 days.

With 8,490 recovered patients being discharged during the day, Mumbai’s active COVID-19 cases rose to 91,731 from 79,260 within 24 hours.

The cumulative total of recovered patients in Mumbai is 7,64,053, while the city has a recovery rate of 87 per cent.

After the BMC modified the guidelines for sealing buildings on discovery of patients, the number of sealed buildings went down to 123 from 502 and that of containment zones to six from 32.

During the second wave, Mumbai’s peak daily rise in cases was 11,163, reported on April 4, 2021, while the highest 90 fatalities were witnessed on May 1, 2021.