Mumbai sees 1854 new COVID cases; city's tally at 1.39 lakh as CM backs postponing exams

Reporting a big jump in cases, Mumbai on Wednesday reported 1584 new Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases with 28 new deaths. BMC stated that some of the cases from today's tally were including yesterday's tally due to ICMR portal update. The city also saw 776 new recoveries taking the cured tally to 1,12,743. Mumbai's tally is at 1,39,532 cases of which 18,977 are active and 7502 fatalities.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates: India's tally crosses 32-lakh mark; Bengal lockdown till Sep 20

Mumbai: 1854 new COVID cases

Mumbai is seeing a steady rise in recovery rate - standing at 81% now while its growth rise slowed to 0.75%. BMC reported that 7,25,519 samples have been tested till date with a 19.23% positivity rate. As per BMC's war room report, 151 of 913 ventilator beds were vacant, while 233 of 1435 ICU beds were vacant.

Raigad building collapse: Shiv Sena to adopt 4-yr-old & 5-yr-old orphaned due to disaster

Maharashtra agrees to support postponing NEET/JEE exams

Attending a video-conference on the Centre's insistence on holding the NEET/JEE (Main) exams in September chaired UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, CM Uddhav Thackeray raised the issue of infection among children if schools are reopened, citing the example of US where 97,000 children were infected by COVID-19 due to early reopening of schools. The 7 state CMs - Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Puducherry CM V Narayanaswamy and Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren have jointly decided to ask the Centre to postpone the exams, vowing to move the SC if needed. Moreover, Maharashtra has also opposed MHA's directive to ensure free movement of goods and people, with state Home minister confirmed that restrictions on inter-state travel cannot be eased as Maharashtra remains the worst-hit state.

NEET-JEE Row: Sonia Gandhi chairs meeting with 7 CMs; Mamata says 'Let's approach SC'

Mumbai's COVID crisis

With Maharashtra extending its lockdown, the BMC has increased its containment zones to 604, while over 5834 buildings and chawls have been sealed and are being self-managed by the society. While slums were initially where most cases were found, BMC claims that most cases were now found in housing societies. The recent BMC report shows Borivali as the most affected place with the doubling rate at 47 days, while Deonar is the least affected ward with a doubling rate at 142 days. Overall, Mumbai's doubling rate at 87 days is higher than the national average of 22 days.

Mumbai sees 743 new COVID cases; city's tally at 1,37,091 as govt won't ease travel curbs