Mumbai: Daily Covid-19 cases in Mumbai have shot up by 642 per cent since 1 December and the fear of Omicron spreading has prompted civic authorities to submit samples from all positive cases till 31 December for genome sequencing.
On 1 December, Mumbai registered 109 cases, with a positivity rate of 0.3 per cent, whereas on 27 December, 809 cases were registered at a positivity rate of 1.8 per cent — a six-fold increase.
The number of Covid cases in Mumbai has started going up steeply since 14 December. Until then, 200-250 cases were recorded in the city daily.
On 26 December, 922 cases were recorded — the highest since 4 June. The overall growth rate of cases in the week of 20-26 December is 0.07 per cent, up from 0.03 per cent the previous week.
Owing to this, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Iqbal Chahal held a meeting Monday to discuss the city’s preparedness for tackling the rising infections.
The BMC has decided to keep ready hospital beds, Covid care centres, including those for children, and ward-wise war rooms in anticipation of a further rise in cases.
“As you know this is the holiday season. The Christmas break is going on and the diaspora living outside the country is visiting Mumbai in large numbers. Foreign travel has increased, and the wedding season is also going on,” Dr Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, told reporters after the meeting.
“Plus, 90 per cent of activities in Mumbai are in the open, where people are not following Covid-appropriate behaviour, leading to an increase in cases. Till 31 December, we have decided to do genome sequencing of all positive cases to check whether it is Omicron or a Delta derivative or the Delta variant. Last time when we did genome sequencing, we found that Delta cases are mostly dominant,” Kakani said.
Not only in Mumbai, cases are rising fast in other parts of Maharashtra too. Till 8 December, there were 6,200 active Covid patients in the state. That figure has now gone up to 10,000.
At a meeting of the state cabinet Monday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray directed the state’s vaccination rate to be accelerated and said a crucial meeting with the state’s Covid task force is necessary within a day or two.
Also read: India sees highest single day rise in Omicron cases, total reaches 578
BMC’s increased preparedness
At Monday’s meeting, the BMC decided to take certain steps, apart from increasing testing and tracing.
Currently, only 5 per cent of the beds earmarked for Covid patients are occupied, but the BMC is planning to activate more beds and medical equipment in the coming days, Kakani said.
Large Covid care centres are to be kept on standby, and ward-wise war rooms are to be activated if the need arises. Covid centres for children are also to be kept ready.
Chahal has also directed officials to keep a tab on the oxygen stock in the city. The current demand, according to BMC officials, is 700 metric tonnes of oxygen a day, comfortably below the BMC’s capacity of supplying 1,100 metric tonnes a day.
The BMC has already announced a ban on all New Year events. Section 144 has been imposed from 9 pm to 6 am in the city till 31 December.
(Edited by Saikat Niyogi)
Also read: How Mumbai did a better job than Delhi in fighting the second wave of Covid