COVID-19: No rollback of local trains, as Mumbai numbers stay steady

Commuters inside a train at Wadala on February 1, when the general public was allowed on them. Pic/Shadab Khan

The railways on Monday said that there was no proposal to roll back public access to Mumbai local train services, but given the rise in COVID-19 cases, promised to step up vigilance protocols of sanitisation of trains, etc. However, on Monday, there were less than 500 cases in the city.

Antigen tests being done for passengers at Dadar station on Monday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

While 503 cases were detected in the city on February 3 (three days after the resumption of local trains), 550 and 645 people tested positive for the deadly virus on February 10 and 14 respectively. Passenger associations said that it was the responsibility of the government to provide a safe and healthy public transport. "Does the novel Coronavirus spread only through local trains? But there should be proper crowd control and medical safety protocols in place. We had appealed to the railways to provide sanitiser machines at gates and other such measures," a passenger association member, Vandana Sonawane, said.

"It is just two weeks since the trains began and it cannot be stated for sure that cases have been rising solely because of this. We will have to wait for at least one more week for results to emerge. Also, one has to note that COVID-19 cases are on the rise in other cities of Maharashtra where local trains do not ply. Hence, one cannot immediately blame local trains," a senior railway official said.

The city recorded 493 fresh cases of COVID-19 on Monday and 3,365 cases were recorded across the state. While the cases seem to decline slightly, it may be due to few tests done over the weekend. The test positivity rate, cases among 100 tests, was 4.26 on Monday, higher than 4 per cent on Sunday. The cases in the city have been rising since Wednesday. Till February 9, the average cases were 408.

Mumbai registered three deaths on Monday. All three had comorbidities and they were above the age of 60 years. At least 566 patients recovered and there are 5,531 active patients in the city. The doubling rate of the city worsened further to 455 days.

In MMR including Mumbai, the number of cases is 880. All the other cities registered less than hundred cases. Navi Mumbai saw one death. Raigad reported 11 deaths, out of which 10 were from before last week.

Amravati (405), Nagpur (415) and Pune (202) reported a sharp increase in cases on Monday. The number of deaths was seven across the state excluding MMR. At least 3,105 patients recovered and there are 36,000 active patients.

20,67,643
Total No. of cases in Maharashtra

880
Total no. of cases reported in MMR in the last 24 hours

3
No. of deaths in city today (All three had comorbidities and they were above 60 years)

566
Patients recovered and discharged in city today

493
No. of new COVID-19 cases in Mumbai on Monday

1,19,410
Total No. of people vaccinated

1,593
No. of people vaccinated on Wednesday