Upto 90 per cent Covid-19 patients are asymptomatic; NMMC officials say worst is over

The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation health officials have claimed that the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has peaked in their jurisdiction. The daily cases which had crossed the 2,000-mark, have halved within a week. There are 17,000 active cases in Navi Mumbai and 5,935 patients have been admitted to hospitals and quarantine centres, while the rest have been quarantined at home. This leaves over 50 per cent of available beds vacant.

Officials expect the cases to go down further. There have been 11 deaths in the past 30 days, so the death rate is also low even in the third wave. Like Mumbai, the third wave struck Navi Mumbai hard. The daily Covid cases which had gone down to 18 on December 20 started rising and were at 2,629 on January 9. The cases peaked on January 13 and were at 18,289. But for the past 5 days, the daily case number is continuously on the decline.

Patients at the CIDCO Exhibition Centre at Vashi. The NMMC says it has not lowered its guard

"The same number of tests (around 10,000) has been constant for the past 4 to 5 days, but the daily case count has come down. On January 11 we did 11,243 tests, out of which 1,873 samples were positive, while on January 17, at least 10,694 tests were conducted, of which 1,141 samples tested positive. This definitely shows a decline. We haven't lowered our guard and emphasize on targeted testing," said a health official.

Majority of the positive patients have been asymptomatic. According to NMMC, 85% to 90% patients are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. But NMMC has made it mandatory for every positive patient above 60 years of age to get institutional quarantine to avoid any complications. "This move has reduced our burden in clinical management as senior citizens remain under our observation and if their condition deteriorates, they get intensive care within a few minutes reducing fatalities. Since the beginning of the fresh wave there have been 11 deaths," said another health official.

More than 50% beds vacant

NMMC has 4 hospitals and 13 Covid Care Centers with 12,000 beds including those in private hospitals. There are 17,000 active cases in Navi Mumbai and 5,935 patients are admitted to hospitals and quarantine centers The NMMC had prepared 1,200 ICU beds for the patients expecting many cases but as they are reducing officials expect they will lie vacant.

Deaths under control

Most of the 11 deaths in the third wave occurred in the past 8 days. According to NMMC data, the deaths reported in the past 1 month are of senior citizens having comorbidities. "The graph of Covid patients which was rapidly going up has started to decline. Not drastically but marginally. We expect this will go down further. Still, we are prepared if any rise in infection is observed. We are keeping a close eye on the situation," said Abhijit Bangar, NMMC Commissioner.

10,000
Approx no. of tests being done every day in Navi Mumbai

34
percentage of those hospitalised from the total active cases