Did COVID-19 cases go up in Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli due to local train resumption?

Commuters wait as a train arrives at Dombivli station on February 4. Pic/Satej Shinde

After a string of days with low numbers of fresh COVID cases and deaths, the city and Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) witnessed a surge in cases. Local authorities, however, claimed that it is not due to the reopening of local trains for all, but because of increased testing at arrival points in the city. In MMR, including Mumbai, the number of cases increased from 693 on Tuesday to 1,075 on Wednesday, a sharp 55 per cent rise. The city reported more than 500 cases after nearly a month, while the number of deaths were restricted to four.

Commuters on a local train on the Harbour line on February 1, the day services resumed for all. Pic/Shadab Khan

While Kalyan-Dombivli recorded 103 new cases, Thane recorded 99 and Navi Mumbai 98 - a surge everywhere. The city had been witnessing 400-450 cases in the first week of February. The number increased on Wednesday with 558 fresh cases. There were 15,688 tests conducted in the city with a Test Positivity Rate (TPR) of 3.5 per cent. On Tuesday, the TPR was 2.6 per cent and on Monday, out of 8,899 tests, 399 turned positive, with a TPR of 4.5 per cent.

"The cases increased but it cannot be attributed to local trains. We have increased the number of testing at airports and other destinations as a result of which the number of cases may increase," said Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner.

Mumbai registered four deaths on Wednesday. There were three deaths reported in the city on Monday and Tuesday, the lowest since last April. All four patients had co-morbidities. Three were above the age of 60 and one patient was between 40 and 60 years.

Meanwhile, in the city, 476 patients recovered and there are 5,369 active patients. In the past week, the cases increased at a rate of 0.13 per cent, slightly more than the previous week and the doubling rate of the city worsened to 555 days after reaching 565 on Monday.

The state recorded 3,451 COVID patients and total of 30 deaths. There wasn't much difference in the new cases in the rest of the state. Two deaths were reported in Navi Mumbai and the rest of the cities didn't see any. Pune Circle registered 659 and Nagpur registered 456 cases. Out of 30 deaths, eight deaths were reported in MMR, five in Pune Circle and six in Nashik Circle.

The cumulative number of cases in the state is 20.52 lakh and the recovery rate of the state has stabilised at 95.7 per cent; 2,421 patients recovered and active patients are 35,000, of which 12,000 are in MMR.

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558
No. of new cases in Mumbai

103
No. of new cases in Kalyan-Dombivli

95,657
Total No. of people vaccinated

6,463
No. of people vaccinated on Wednesday

20,52,253
Total No. of cases in Maharashtra

1,075
Total no. of cases reported in MMR in the last 24 hours

4
No. of deaths in city today (All four had co-morbidities, three were aged above 60 years and one was aged between 40 and 60 years)

476
Patients recovered and discharged in city today