Mumbai reports sharp rise in new coronavirus cases at 2,479; one more dies

Mumbai witnessed a sharp jump in new COVID-19 cases at 2,479 on Thursday, up by 831 from a day ago and the highest daily count since January 23, while one more patient succumbed to the infection, the city civic body said.

The tally includes some backdated cases, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in a bulletin. With these additions, the overall COVID-19 count in the metropolis surged to 11,01,862, while the death toll increased to 19,589, said the bulletin. Significantly, the daily COVID-19 case count in the city has crossed the 2,000-mark after a three-day gap. A day before, the financial capital of the county had reported 1,648 COVID-19 cases and two fatalities linked to the respiratory illness. Mumbai reported 831 more COVID-19 cases than Wednesday's count, but the civic bulletin claimed infections showed a sharp jump because "ICMR Portal was not functional since the last 2 days and some backdated cases have been reported in today's report." The metropolis reported a 50.12 per cent surge in daily COVID-19 cases, taking the cumulative tally to more than 11 lakh. The city reported the highest daily COVID-19 cases since January 23, when it had detected 2,550 new patients and 13 fatalities. As per the bulletin, 2,365 patients recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours, pushing up their total number to 10,68,659. Mumbai, which now has 13,614 COVID-19 patients under treatment, has been reporting cases in four digits since June 7. The bulletin said 20,408 coronavirus tests were carried out in the metropolis in the last 24 hours, taking their cumulative count to 1,74,36,851.

The growth of COVID-19 cases in Mumbai stood at 0.172 per cent between June 16-22, while the case doubling rate was 390 days, it said. Out of the 2,479 new cases, 2,370 were asymptomatic and 109 patients with symptoms were admitted to hospitals. Of these, 24 patients are on oxygen support, the BMC said. Out of the 24,765 hospital beds earmarked for coronavirus patients in the metropolis, only 665 beds are currently occupied, the civic body said. Mumbai has a test positivity rate of 12.14 per cent and a coronavirus recovery rate of 97 per cent, the bulletin said. The metropolis, however, is free of sealed buildings or containment zones.