Coronavirus outbreak: Toll crosses 1,000 in Mumbai

An analysis by the Medical Education department of 25,000 active cases in the state has shown that 1,166 were critically ill and another 5,899 had mild to moderate symptoms.

With 2,436 new Covid-19 cases, Maharashtra now has 52,667 cases, of which at least 35,178 are actively infected. Mumbai recorded 1,430 cases, taking its total number to 31,972. The city also crossed 1,000 deaths with the toll at 1,026.

An analysis by the Medical Education department of 25,000 active cases in the state has shown that 1,166 were critically ill and another 5,899 had mild to moderate symptoms. While the state has over 15,000 intensive care units, it is still falling short of beds for critically ill patients, especially in Mumbai, as many of these beds are occupied by moderately or mildly ill persons.

Additional municipal commissioner, BMC, Suresh Kakani said people must call 1916 for a bed instead of visiting multiple hospitals in order to get timely reference to a hospital with vacant beds. “Patients are getting beds and ambulance within few hours of calling the helpline,” he said.

On Monday, the BMC announced it had prepared a dashboard to keep track of the availability of beds in real time and has given each bed a unique identification code to know which one is vacant at what time.

Till now 1,695 people have died due to Covid-19 in Maharashtra, including 60 people announced on Monday — Mumbai (38), Pune (11), Navi Mumbai (3), Thane (2), Aurangabad (2), Solapur (1), Kalyan (1), and Ratnagiri(1). A Bihar native also succumbed to Covid-19 in Mumbai. Officials said of the 60 deaths, 54 occurred in last two days, the remaining over the past week.

The state has a significant 5.3 lakh high risk population under home and institutional quarantine, while 15,786 people who have fully recovered from Covid-19 have been discharged. As on Monday there were 2,391 containment zones in Maharashtra.

Of those tested 13.9 per cent have so far tested positive. Mumbai, Pune, Navi Mumbai and Thane have the heaviest case loads. With migrants returning home, districts like Jalgaon, Beed, Latur, Dhule are fast recording new cases in their jurisdiction. Most have returned there from Mumbai, Thane, and Pune.

On Monday Mumbai admitted 825 more patients suspected to have coronavirus infection. A BMC study of infections and deaths in Mumbai show while people aged less than 40 are most infected by the virus, the fatality rate is lowest amongst them. Till date 13,133 people in that age bracket have been infected and only 69 (0.5 per cent) have died. In contrast, of 5,709 people aged above 60 who were infected, 463 have died taking the fatality rate to 8.1 per cent in that age group. The overall death rate in city stands at 3.2 per cent.