Out of 6,958 active patients as of December 16, 4,486 were symptomatic including 659 critical patients; just 36 per cent were asymptomatic in Mumbai
Passengers get antigen tests done at Dadar station on Thursday. Pics/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
The dipping COVID-19 numbers have been a sign that the city is slowly recovering from the pandemic, but there still remains cause for worry - the rising number of symptomatic patients. There has been a two-fold increase in patients turning symptomatic.
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Passengers arriving from Gujarat undergo COVID-19 test at Dadar railway station on Thursday
Earlier, about 30-35 per cent of the active patients would show mild symptoms or be in critical conditions, but that figure has risen to 64 per cent. However, BMC officials claim that they are adding admitted asymptomatic senior citizens or people with co-morbidities to the symptomatic list as well.
Till December 15, the total number of COVID-19 positive patients had reached 2.85 lakh, out of which 2.65 lakh had recovered and around 7,000 active patients were either taking treatment at COVID hospitals or were under quarantine. While the number of active patients is on the decline, the count of symptomatic patients has started to show an upward trend. As the civic body increased testing post Ganeshotsav, the number of positive cases started increasing, but most of them were asymptomatic. When the active cases were highest on September 18, hardly 28 per cent of the positive patients had symptoms. Even six days back on December 10, out of 11,903 active patients, only 25 per cent (3,003) were symptomatic.
Out of 6,958 active patients on December 16, 4,486 were symptomatic, including 659 critical patients. Only 36 per cent of people do not have any symptoms. Out of the 4,486 symptomatic patients, 4,426 are admitted in COVID hospitals, jumbo facilities and in Corona Care Centre 2 meant for isolation of symptomatic patients. Speaking to mid-day, BMC chief Iqbal Singh Chahal said, "The active cases are the lowest compared to the last eight months. Symptomatic patients take 15 to 20 days to recover, unlike asymptomatic ones. So the percentage seems higher."
"Some senior citizens and asymptomatic patients having co-morbidities get admitted and are listed in the asymptomatic patients’ category. But now the BMC has started including them in the symptomatic list," said a civic official.
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