Coronavirus yet to peak: Time for Mumbai to hunker down

Residents of Jijamata Nagar go about their day on Wednesday. Pic/Suresh Karkera

Mumbai reported a startling jump in the number of COVID-19 casualties on Wednesday, with 40 deaths. The city also recorded the second highest daily count of new cases with 800 of them on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the city's municipal authorities are making arrangements to increase the testing capacity of the laboratories at Kasturba and KEM hospitals.

Civic officials said that among the 40 deaths, 17 of them took place between May 4 and 10 and 22 of the patients were suffering from other ailments. While 20 of the patients who died were senior citizens, 17 others were between the age group of 40-59 years and three were below the age of 40.

Children living in a Tilaknagar slum study next to a banner declaring it a containment zone on Wednesday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

State health officials said that 1,495 new cases were reported in Maharashtra, taking the state's tally to 25,922 cases. Like Mumbai, the state too recorded the highest number of deaths. Among the 54 deaths, 40 were from Mumbai, six in Pune, two in Jalgaon, two in Solapur, two in Aurangabad and one each in Vasai-Virar and Ratnagiri. State health officials said that apart from the 800 new cases, an additional 220 patients have tested positive in Mumbai but are yet to be included in the tally. The city now has 15,747 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

While experts said that the higher count of deaths is expected due to the growing number of positive cases, they, however, added that the virus is yet to reach its peak. "Since the number of people infected is growing, more people require hospitalisation. Based on the figures, we expect the peak to be a few weeks away," said a member of the COVID-19 committee set up by the state government.

Health workers check residents' temperatures in Kurla West. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Even though the criteria for testing has been narrowed and is now limited to symptomatic cases in most cases, barring pregnant women, civic officials are working on increasing the testing capacity of laboratories. "We are doubling KEM Hospital's capacity to 600. At Kasturba Hospital, the capacity will be increased from 450 tests to 750 tests a day. We are also planning to purchase another machine with a higher capacity - similar to one at JJ Hospital. The decision will be taken this week," said Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner.

Meanwhile, the number of cases in Dharavi alone crossed the 1,000 mark with 66 new cases. The area now has 1,028 cases and civic officials from G North ward said that while no new deaths were reported on Wednesday, the health department included the deaths of nine patients who died earlier in the COVID-19 tally. While eight new cases were reported from Dadar, 12 were reported from Mahim including five cases from Mori Road there.

Workers build toilets for a COVID-19 isolation facility at Mahalaxmi racecourse on Wednesday. Pic/Ashish Raje

750
No. of tests that the lab at Kasturba Hospital will be able to conduct after increase in capacity

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