COVID-19: Mumbai cases cross 5k-mark; officials say no need of complete lockdown

The city reported more than 5000 cases on Wednesday the maximum to date BMC officials say this is the result of conducting over 40000 tests on a single day While the municipal commissioner has asked for 2450 more beds to be allotted in private hospitals for COVID19 patients he claims of those who tested positive 84 per cent were asymptomatic Officials also say there is no need of a complete lockdownThe state recorded about 32000 cases due to a higher number of cases in Mumbai as well as in the Pune circle The state reported 95 deathsThe city has been reporting over 3000 cases from last week But on Wednesday the figure spiked to 5185 ldquoThe BMC started conducting antigen tests at crowded places and around 21900 antigen tests were conducted The earlier average of antigen tests was 7000 So the cases are seen increasingrdquo said an officer with the BMC A total of 40400 tests were conducted on Wednesday including RTPCR and antigen The earlier average of tests was 23000 per dayldquoTesting has gone to 40000 and test positivity rate has dropped to 135 per cent from the earlier 18 per cent There is no need to panic Of those who tested positive 84 per cent were asymptomatic and there is not much pressure on hospitals More testing and isolation of those found positive is the best way to fight the pandemic It will fasten herd immunity alsordquo said Iqbal Singh Chahal municipal commissionerldquoIn general the proportion of asymptomatic patients is 80 per cent Out of 15 per cent symptomatic patients five per cent need hospitalisationrdquo said Suresh Kakani additional commissioner of the BMCAt least 2088 patients recovered and were discharged on Wednesday But the number of active patients climbed up to 30760 in Mumbai The maximum number of active patients around 34000 was in midSeptemberThe silver lining is that the number of deaths is under control There were six deaths reported in the city All had comorbidities Five were above the age of 60 years and one was between 40 years and 60 years oldThe Mumbai Metropolitan Region MMR reported 9147 cases including the ones in Mumbai Other cities like Thane recorded 827 cases Navi Mumbai recorded 566 and KalyanDombivli recorded 929 The MMR excluding Mumbai witnessed 9 deaths out of which five were reported in KalyanDombivliPune circle reported 7562 Akola circle reported 1760 Nashik with 4109 and Nagpur with 4833 took the number of cases to 31855 Nagpur reported the highest number of deaths 35 Nashik reported 12 and Pune reported 9 deaths A total of 15098 patients were discharged across Maharashtra and the number of active cases increased to 247 lakh2564881 Tal No of cases in Maharashtra9147 Total no of cases reported in MMR in the last 24 hours6 No of deaths in city on Tuesday Both patients had comorbidities One patient was between 40 and 60 years of age and one was above 60 years2088 Patients recovered and discharged in city on Wednesday839993 Total no of people administered the first vaccine dose133830 No of people who have taken second vaccine dose so far30715 No of people who took their first vaccine dose on Wednesday3918 No of people who took their second vaccine dose on Wednesday5185 No of new cases in Mumbai on Wednesday40400 No of tests including RTPCR and antigen conducted on Wednesday13537 The TPR of Mumbai