Mumbai Reports Over 500 New COVID-19 Cases For First Time Since July 15

Mumbai on Wednesday recorded 530 new coronavirus cases, the highest since mid-July this year, and four fatalities, a senior Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official said. With this, the city's infection count rose to 7,47,608 and death toll to 16,004. 

On July 15, the financial capital had logged 545 COVID-19 cases. But after that its daily case count remained below 500 and even went under 190 by mid-August. However, since the beginning of September, the city has started reporting over 400 COVID-19 daily, barring the last two days when there were 379 cases (on Monday) and 353 cases (on Tuesday). After a long gap, a new containment zone was declared in Mumbai -- this time in the R-South ward in the western suburbs. The city was free of containment zones since mid-August. The number of sealed buildings in the metropolis now stands at 50, the civic official said.

According to the BMC data, as many as 48,521 tests, the highest since August 20, were carried out in the metropolis in the last 24 hours. With this, its cumulative test count reached 95,51,541.

The Mumbai civic body seals a building or declares a containment zone if at least five persons are found infected there at a time. There are 3,895 active COVID-19 cases in Mumbai, and its average recovery rate is 97 percent, the official said. The city's average case doubling rate has come down to 1,253 days and the average growth rate to 0.6 percent for the period between September 1 and 7, the BMC official said. This year, Mumbai had reported the highest number of 11,163 daily cases on April 4, 2021, while the highest 90 fatalities were witnessed on May 1, 2021.

(PTI)