This story is from May 5, 2021

Covid wave ‘plateauing’ in Mumbai, but strict lockdowns in 3 districts

There was further proof on Tuesday of the second Covid wave ‘plateauing’ in Mumbai, with fewer than 3,000 cases registered for the second consecutive day.
Covid wave ‘plateauing’ in Mumbai, but strict lockdowns in 3 districts
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MUMBAI: There was further proof on Tuesday of the second Covid wave ‘plateauing’ in Mumbai, with fewer than 3,000 cases registered for the second consecutive day.
Cases in the state reported a slight increase from Monday but were still under 52,000. However, fatalities in the state rose to 891 -- a 57% jump from 567 on Monday. The state’s daily case fatality rate touched 1.7%, higher than the last few days.
With this, the state’s caseload touched 48.2 lakh and the total toll rose to 71,742.
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Even as cases in 12 districts were reporting a decline, daily detections were on the rise across the other 24. To control spread of infection, a few districts have announced a local lockdown. The Kolhapur administration has decided to impose a strict lockdown from Wednesday for 10 days during which only milk and medicine supply will continue every day.
Other essential shops will remain shut. The Baramati tehsil administration has decided to impose a ‘strict lockdown’ in the town and 94 villages from May 5 till May 11. Amid rising cases and deaths, Sangli guardian minister Jayant Patil announced a complete lockdown in the district for 8 days starting midnight of May 5.
Meanwhile, from the pandemic’s highest single-day tally of 11,206 on April 4, the city on Tuesday was less than a fourth at 2,554 cases. While daily toll has been worrying, with the highest in the second wave registered on May 1 (90), the figure has been dropping for 3 days – 79 (Sunday), 78 (Monday) and 62 on Tuesday. Officials said tests have dipped in the last few days.

But daily toll may take a few days to decline. Dr Avinash Supe, who heads the death audit committee on Covid-19, said the situation in the city has been stabilising for 15 days. “Deaths may remain high for another few days until demand for ICU beds doesn’t drop sharply.”
In another indicator of dropping infection rates, active cases in the city dropped to 56,465 from almost 90,000 a fortnight ago. “The number of people out on streets has dropped, malls and restaurants are closed. The effect of restraints are apparent,” said a civic officer.
In the most positive development, BMC chief I S Chahal said, “Our city has 7,409 Covid-19 beds vacant today, including 100 ICUs at 6:13 pm.” From mid-April when there were less than 10 vacant ICU beds, the BMC dashboard on Tuesday morning showed 56 vacant ICU beds in the private sector and 42 in the public sector (2 more were added later).
In BMC-run KEM Hospital in Parel, daily admissions dropped to 15 as against daily average admissions of 52 in April. KEM dean Dr Hemant Deshmukh said there are 255 patients admitted right now. “Totally, we have 478 beds for Covid-19 patients,” he said. Daily deaths too have dropped from 6 a day to 2 on Monday. Health minister Rajesh Tope said the state’s positivity rate has declined from 27% to 22% in 10 days and rate of recovery is on the rise. Daily discharges were way higher than detections (65,934).
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