Mumbai: Covid-19 cases down but death toll on higher side in July

A man gets his booster shot at KJ Somaiya Covid Centre in Sion. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

The surge in Covid-19 cases from June has so far taken 77 lives in the city. Though the Covid cases fell from nearly 47,000 in June to around 9,600 in July, the month of July witnessed 31 deaths, mostly in people with comorbidities. From March to May, when the cases were at their lowest, 11 deaths were reported.

It was not declared as the fourth wave but the surge in Covid cases in June impacted several lives in the city. In the last week of May cases started rising sharply and in June, the city witnessed 46,929 new cases. At least 46 people lost lives in the month. Though the cases started declining in July, many people had to stay in hospitals for several days for treatment. The overall cases dropped to 9,618 till July 25 but the death toll is still on the higher side with 31 so far. The month also saw a rise in hospitalisations even as the fatalities remained lower than the last month. Out of 1,826 active cases, 192 are hospitalised and 11 are critical.

After the third wave of Covid receded in March, very few cases were reported in April with test positivity rate (TPR), or positive cases per 100 tests, at less than 1 per cent. The TPR was 3.2 per cent in May which rose to 11.6 per cent in June and has come down to 4.3 per cent in July. "Over 90 per cent of the deaths occurred in people with comorbidities and senior citizens. Now as the cases have dropped drastically, the number of deaths will also come down in the next few weeks," said a BMC official.