MUMBAI: As the city’s daily Covid tally tumbled for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday, experts said the Covid-Omicron wave may already be “flattening”, barely three weeks after cases started rising exponentially.
The state reported a marginal increase in its daily detections. The city’s Covid tally on Tuesday stood at 11,647 against 13,648 on Monday, 19,474 on Sunday and 20,318 on Saturday. Mumbai conducted 62,097 tests in 24 hours, which is lower than the tests conducted a few days ago.
“The Omicron wave (in Mumbai) is flattening for sure,” said Dr Shashank Joshi, a member of the state government’s task force on Covid. As experts expect different peaks in various cities and regions, the Covid tally in Maharashtra registered a 3% rise over a 24-hour period: cases climbed to 34,424 on Tuesday as against 33,470 a day earlier. The reason for cheer in Mumbai stems not only from a dropping daily count, but also a drop in the daily positivity rate.
BMC commissioner Iqbal Chahal said, “Mumbai’s positivity is down from 30% to 20% in the last two days. Daily cases are down from 20,700 to 11,647 in the last four days.”
State reports 22 deaths, its highest daily Covid-19 toll in the last 12 days
Municipal commissioner Iqbal Chahal has reiterated that there is “no need to panic”. He said 80% of Covid beds in Mumbai are vacant.
“While 851 hospital beds were occupied today (Tuesday) in one day, 966 were vacated today,” Chahal said. “In the ongoing third wave, the city has registered 46 deaths in 22 days, which is an average of two deaths a day.” The state reported a surge in fatalities on Tuesday. With 22 deaths, the state has reported its highest Covid fatalities in 12 days.
The city’s test positivity rate was 18.75% on Tuesday as compared to 23% on Monday and 28% on Sunday. “The number of tests has not dropped drastically, but the positivity rate has. The overall trend thus is a flattening of the curve,” said Covid task force member Dr Shashank Joshi. A senior BMC doctor said Mumbai has always registered the week’s highest tally on Wednesdays. “We should see tomorrow’s (Wednesday’s) tally before stating that the decline has begun,” said the doctor.
Officials said though Mumbai showed a declining trend, MMR cities like Thane and Navi Mumbai were reporting a surge in cases apart from cities like Pune and Nashik.
“Despite three weeks into the third wave, deaths in the state continue to be low. This could be due to the high vaccine coverage of cities like Mumbai and Pune. The effect of the variant could be fatal once it spreads to smaller districts with low vaccination,” said an official. The state cabinet is likely to meet on Wednesday and a review on the ongoing wave and restrictions will be held. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to hold a virtual review meeting with the CMs of all states on Thursday.
