Covid-19 in Mumbai: Daily tally, active caseload dip for 3rd straight day

Punjab Junction Newspaper | 14 January 2022

The daily Covid-19 infections and the active caseload in Mumbai continued to decline for the third straight day after 11,317 more tested positive for the disease in the city on Friday. This took the total caseload to 981,306, according to data from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Also, nine more people lost their lives to the disease on the day and the death toll climbed to 16,435.

The city reported 16,420 cases and 13,702 cases on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. However, the dip in cases on Friday came along with a dip in the number of samples tested too. As many as 54,924 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, less than the 63,031 tested on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the active caseload also witnessed a significant decline of 10,771 cases and was recorded at 84,352, compared with the 95,123 on the previous day.

The civic body also noted that 84% of the new infections on the day were asymptomatic. Further, 16.8% or 6,432 hospital beds in the city have been occupied so far out of the total 38,088 beds.

Earlier on Thursday, Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope warned that the decline in Covid-19 cases might be due to low testing in the state. “In the past two-three days, the reporting of COVID-19 cases might have come down. It may be because of the low testing. On Wednesday, the state has reported around 46,000 new COVID-19 cases. So, there is no indication of flattening of the curve in Maharashtra,” he said.

Further, he also said that there was a vaccine shortage in the state due to the inoculation of precautionary third doses and the inclusion of those between 15 and 17 years of age in the vaccination drive. However, on Friday, the Union health ministry denied any crunch in the doses available with the state and said that the unutilised doses of Covishield would sustain for 30 more days and Covaxin for 10 days, considering the state’s daily average consumption.