The second wave of coronavirus has everyone in a state of a tizzy. Many places that have managed to flatten the curve, have become hotspots once again. Maharashtra on Monday, March 22, witnessed a slight drop in the daily count of new COVID-19 cases. In the last 24 hours, the state reported 24,645 new cases and 58 deaths. However, in Mumbai, the cases continue to balloon.
For the second consecutive day, more than 3,000 cases were reported in Mumbai. On Monday, Mumbai reported the highest 3,262 fresh cases along with 10 coronavirus fatalities. According to the data released by BMC, since March 1 the city has witnessed a whopping 142 per cent increase in active cases since March 1.
On March 1, Mumbai had 9,690 active cases of COVID-19, which has now increased to 23,448 on March 21. This has further led to an increase in people in hospitals. As per the data shared, 47 per cent of beds are now occupied. One of the major reason, for the beds to still remain vacant is being attributed to the fact that almost 70 per cent of the people in the city are asymptomatic. Another positive in regards to the second wave is that the fatality rate is under control. In Mumbai, the fatality rate has been hovering at around 1 per cent.
Nevertheless, in view of the spike in cases of coronavirus, BMC’s Municipal Commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal has decided to increase the beds in the city from 12,000 to 18,000. He conducted a video conference call with the civic officials urging them to reactivate the isolation and quarantine units which include marriage and community halls and sports centres, among other venues.
The commissioner has also asked officials to use smaller nursing homes as COVID Care Units whenever necessary. Furthermore, private laboratories were directed to send the test reports to the BMC first rather than sharing them with the patient.
Given the rising number of cases, on Tuesday, March 23, the Centre announced that the next phase of the vaccination drive for the coronavirus is to start from April 1.
In this phase, all people above the age of 45 can get vaccinated. While only healthcare and frontline workers were vaccinated at government facilities in the first phase, the inoculation drive was expanded to include people above 60 years of age and those aged above 45 years having comorbidities in the second phase. Meanwhile, there are 1,16,86,796 COVID-19 cases in India out of which 1,11,81,253 patients have recovered while 1,60,166 deaths have been reported.
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