mumbai

Updated: Apr 05, 2020 21:53 IST

A review of the progression of Covid-19 cases in Mumbai has revealed that the number of positive patients has been increasing much faster over the last five days after the city breached its 100-patient mark.

On April 5, the city touched a toll of 458, with 81 positive patients identified in a single day.

It took Mumbai 15 days to breach the 100-patient mark after the first two patients – an Andheri-based couple – were identified on March 11. On March 31, the city crossed the 100-patient mark, taking the toll to 151. Since then, the virus has been multiplying faster as cases have tripled in just five days.

The city crossed its 200-patient mark (235 cases) on April 2. By April 4, another 100 positive cases were reported, taking the tally to 377. On Sunday (April 5), 81 more cases were confirmed within 24 hours.

Similarly, the death count due to the virus has also been increasing. To date the city has registered 30 deaths; Mumbai’s first death linked to the virus was reported on March 17, after a 64-year-old man died at Kasturba Hospital.

It then took 13 days to register 10 new deaths, however, the death ratio later tripled, taking the death tally of the city to 30 on April 5.

State disease surveillance officer Dr Pradip Awate said, “It is true that the number of positive cases is increasing day by day as we have improved our testing from merely 1,000 samples to 5,500 samples in a day.”

The Maharashtra government is currently testing 5,500 samples for the Sars-Cov-2 virus daily at 13 government and eight private labs. Awate said that considering overcrowding and large population density in Mumbai, the civic body has already identified containment zones to avoid further spread of the virus.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to start 10 Covid-19 screening clinics in all containment zones and densely-populated areas where the focal outbreak is observed.

The spike in cases, including that on Sunday, includes confirmation of cases tested earlier by private labs, pointed out another civic health official. He said that such a trend was likely to continue till April 15 due to increased testing.

However, some experts said that even now, enough testing is not being done to gauge the actual spread of the virus.

Dr Shashikant Ahankari, a community health specialist, and president of the Halo Medical Foundation, said, “To deal with the situation, the state government should opt for random testing at least in infected areas like Worli Koliwada, from where a many cases are being identified.”