Mumbai sees 1438 new cases; city tally touches 35k as Centre reviews 13 worst-hit cities

In a marginal dip in the number of Coronavirus (COVID-19), Mumbai saw 1438 new cases and 38 fatalities on Thursday.  The city also witnessed 763 patients recover, taking its total discharged tally to 9817.  The BMC has also stated that 1,500 of its frontline workers have tested COVID-19 positive and 25 have died, as per reports. Mumbai currently tops the nation's COVID-19 tally with 35,273 cases and 1135 deaths.

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Mumbai: 1438 new cases

Mumbai's civic body - Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has also shared the bed occupancy by COVID hospitals, using its centralised COVID dashboard. While beds for Co-morbid and severe cases are occupied more than 80%, beds for asymptomatic and mild cases are less than 50% occupied. The city has conducted 1,85,701 tests till date of which 3948 were conducted in the past 24 hours.

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BMC revises testing strategy

On Wednesday, BMC revised its testing guidelines, stating COVID test will not be mandatory for emergency surgery. Moreover, pregnant women living in clusters or containment areas and about to give birth within 5 days, must be tested even if asymptomatic. Differing from ICMR guidelines, the BMC excludes asymptomatic high-risk persons from testing but quarantines them. Moreover, high-risk contacts may be tested on the between 5th & 14th day of quarantine after 'careful observation', states the BMC - inspite CM Thackeray claiming 70 to 75% of the patients had very mild or no symptoms.

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Mumbai under containment

The BMC has reduced its containment zones from  2,800 to 669,  by excluding sealed buildings and chawls, which will be self-managed by the society. Moreover, ICMR's serosurvey to track the trend of Coronavirus spread has begun in 10 hotspots in the city. The city - which is still under strict restrictions, has allowed online delivery of liquor and has allowed domestic flight operations and local train services only for Railway employees.

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The city is also one of 13 worst-hit COVID cities identified by the Centre which has suggested proper mapping of the containment and buffer zones, active search for cases through house-to-house surveillance, proper laying out of the activities allowed, emphasis on contact tracing, strengthening testing protocol and focus on the clinical management of active cases. After extending lockdown till May 30, the state has divided its COVID-19 zones as “red zones” and “non-red zones", instead of red, orange, and green zones - based on death count and doubling rate. As per the new definition, Maharashtra's red zones are Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Pune, Solapur, Aurangabad, Malegaon, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgoan, Akola and Amravati, while the rest of the state are non-red zones.