Mumbai's Covid cases again slip below 1k-mark; 7 die, active tally at 7,601

Mumbai's daily coronavirus count again dropped below the 1,000-mark as it reported 827 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, while seven more patients died due to the infection, the city civic body said.

With these additions, the tally of coronavirus infections rose to 10,49,348, while the death toll increased to 16,647, a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) bulletin said. Mumbai reported a dip of 301 cases from a day ago and the daily tally again went below 1,000. On Wednesday, the financial capital had reported 1,128 cases and 10 fatalities after recording 803 infections and seven fatalities on Tuesday. The daily positivity rate (cases detected per 100 tests), however, increased to 2.29 per cent from 2.44 per cent from a day ago. In the last 24 hours, 36,082 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the city, nearly 10,000 fewer than the previous day, taking their cumulative count to 1,54,23,088, the bulletin said. With 1,366 more patients discharged during the day, the number of recovered cases jumped to 10,22,292, it said. The city's coronavirus recovery rate is 97 per cent. The case doubling rate of Mumbai jumped to 623 days, while the growth rate of COVID-19 cases between January 27 and February 2 was 0.11 per cent, the civic body said. Mumbai now has 7,601 active COVID-19 cases. As per the bulletin, 719 out of the 827 new patients, or around 87 per cent, were asymptomatic. In the past 24 hours, only 105 patients were hospitalised and 26 put on oxygen support, it said. Also, only 1,768 of the total 37,279 COVID-19 hospital beds are occupied in the city, according to the bulletin. At present, only three buildings are sealed in the city, which doesn't have any containment zone in slums and 'chawls' (old row tenements), it added. On January 7, 2022, Mumbai had reported the highest-ever 20,971 cases during the coronavirus third wave, which according to municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, started from December 21, 2021. Last year, Mumbai had reported the highest 11,163 daily cases on April 4 during the second wave of the pandemic.