Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar on Tuesday warned of a lockdown in Mumbai if the daily Covid-19 cases cross the 20,000-mark, asking residents to follow protocol amid a spike in numbers, especially of the Omicron variant.
Mumbai on Monday reported 8,082 COVID-19 cases, the highest daily count after April 18, 2021, taking the caseload beyond the 8-lakh mark, while two more patients succumbed to the infection, the city civic body said.
Mumbai also reported 40 new cases of the latest coronavirus variant Omicron, pushing the number of such infections to 368 in the metropolis, according to the Maharashtra government’s health department.
The number of sealed buildings in the metropolis also showed an exponential growth as their count has surged to 318, though the tally of containment zones in slums and ‘chawls’ (old row tenements) stood lower at 11. As cases are rising steadily, the BMC has decided to shut schools of all mediums for classes 1 to 9 and 11 till January 31, a civic official said.
Students of classes 10 and 12 are excluded from this decision which means they can attend schools in person. Classes for students of 1 to 9 and 11 will continue in online mode, as directed earlier.
With the rise in COVID-19 infections and detection of Omicron cases suggesting an increase in “transmissibility”, the Mumbai civic body on Monday revised the protocol regarding sealing of buildings where coronavirus cases are found.
As per the modified protocol, an entire building or a wing of a building complex or a housing society will be sealed if COVID-19 cases are found in more than 20% of the occupied flats in that building or the wing of the building complex or society.
BMC Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani has said up to 92 per cent of cases are reported from high rises. He said the slums have yet to make a significant contribution to the caseload. Dr. Mangala Gomare, BMC’s executive health officer told the Times of India that it was not because testing was less in slums. “People are being tested as and when they develop symptoms,” she said, adding that contact tracing was also being meticulously carried out.
According to a report in the Times of India, daily Covid hospitalizations in the city have increased by 15% in the last four days, owing to an increase in cases. The civic-run jumbo centres are rushing to add beds, while private hospitals have begun converting many of their non-Covid wards to Covid sections.
Five-seventy-four people were admitted to city hospitals on Monday, up from 503 on Sunday, 389 on Saturday, and 497 on Friday. A few hospitals have begun to see an increase in ICU admissions, with many directly resulting from low oxygen saturation levels.
According to BMC data released on Monday, 12.2 percent (3,735) of Mumbai’s 30,565 Covid-19 beds are occupied, and 14 percent of the 2,720 ICU beds are occupied. For the past two weeks, the city has seen an increase in cases, and a rise in critical cases is typically seen from the second or third week onwards.
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