Brace for the worst, says CM, as Mumbai's Covid growth rate hits 6.6%

MUMBAI: Mumbai continues to account for 60% of the state's fatalities. Starting from May 6, the state has recorded over 1,000 cases daily for 12 days in a row. Thereafter, it has started seeing a further surge. For the last six days, it has recorded over 2,000 cases every single day.


On Sunday, it crossed the 3,000-mark in one day. The only silver lining was, 1,194 patients went home on Sunday, taking the count of recovered people to 14,600. State's recovery rate continues to be 29%.

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, in an address, said the crucial period is yet to come, and the state has to brace for the worst. He called for precautions to be taken since the rains are approaching. Anticipating a shortage of blood, he appealed for donors as the state faces a shortfall of blood units. "We have blood which will suffice only for 8-10 days. We need blood for Covid and non-Covid patients," said Thackeray.

The CM further added that the number of beds available for Covid-19 patients would increase to 14,000 by May-end. He said field hospitals have been set up with ICU beds and oxygen facilities as more patients would need oxygen than ventilators. He also thanked citizens for complying with social distancing norms and lockdown rules, which he said, had helped keep the case load below 50,000 at a time when a central team had projected 1.25 to 1.5 lakh patients till May-end.

Civic authorities said the city's Covid-19 growth rate from May 16 to May 22 was 6.61%, with eight of the 24 civic wards showing a growth rate of more than 8%. The maximum (13.7%) was in N ward that covers Ghatkopar and Vidyavihar. BMC additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said wards with a higher growth rate need stricter containment measures and greater participation from citizen groups to enforce social distancing.

In terms of augmenting facilities, Kakani added that doctors have undertaken a dry run of the jumbo facility in MMRDA, BKC and it was likely to be thrown open for patients from Monday. In the next few days, facilities at NESCO in Goregaon and Mahalaxmi too will be opened.

Across the state, there were 58 deaths due to Covid-19, of which 39 were from Mumbai, six from Pune, six from Solapur, four from Aurangabad and one each from Latur, Mira-Bhayandar and Thane.