Mumbai reports two new Covid-19 deaths, 376 infections; active cases 1268

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Two more patients have succumbed to coronavirus in Mumbai on Thursday, taking the toll to 40,144 while 376 people tested positive for the infection, up from 221 the previous day, the state health department. With the addition of 376 fresh infections the city now has 1268 active Covid-19 cases.

Maharashtra state reported three deaths including the two in Mumbai taking the toll to 1,48,454, while 803 people tested positive for the infection, up from 569 the previous day.

With the addition of 803 new cases in the last 24 hours, the state's overall Covid-19 tally rose to 81,47,673, the department said in a bulletin.

The health department said 687 patients recovered from the coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours, taking their cumulative count to 79,94,545 and leaving the state with an active caseload of 3987.

It said 9,002 new coronavirus tests were conducted in Maharashtra, pushing up their overall count to 8,66,64,387.

The doctors have said most of the newly detected cases recover in 72 hours.

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Dr Vasant Nagvekar, Co-director of Infectious Disease at Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital, said, "Only high-risk group patients take time to recover. The healthy young population patients do recover within 72 hours. In most in-patient cases the patients are admitted in the hospital for some other medical reasons, but after undergoing test, some test positive for Covid-19."

As per the doctors, the city has seen a sustained increase in Covid-19 cases since March 11 this year.

While most of the cases are mild and self-limiting, certain high-risk groups (elderly, people with comorbidities, pregnant women) are prone to severe manifestations requiring hospitalization.

Dr Nagvekar said that while there has been an increase in the number of cases in the last three weeks, there has not been much increase in the number of cases in past two to three days. Most of the cases have a high fever and cough, he said. "Looking at the cases visiting the hospitals for a check-up, it can be said that the number of cases is not multiplying further."

On the other hand, the doctors say that there has been a decrease in the number of H3N2 cases and swine flu cases in the last few weeks.