Mumbai witnesses first Covid death since August last year

Mumbai: While the state recorded 29 new cases of the JN.1 sub-variant on Saturday, Mumbai recorded its first COVID death this year with a 52-year-old man from Chembur succumbing to COVID-related complications.

According to the state COVID update, a Nagpur resident, too, died due to COVID, taking the number of SARS-CoV-2 deaths in the state this year to four so far.

Of the 29 new JN.1 cases, 15 were reported from Pune and none from Mumbai.

A senior state official said the reason for zero-JN.1 cases from Mumbai is that none of the COVID-positive samples from the city has been sent to National Institute of Virology, Pune, where samples from other cities undergo genome sequencing to check for JN.1 variant .

"Mumbai's COVID-positive samples have been sent to the Haffkine Lab, and the results should be out in a day or two,'' said the official.

Meanwhile, the city's COVID death is the first since August 9, 2023. The 52-year-old patient had fever for five days, along with cough and breathlessness. He tested positive on January 5 (Friday) after getting admitted to a civic hospital in M ward on the previous day, said a civic health officer. The man was a chronic alcoholic.

The state health department official on Saturday said that Maharashtra has so far reported 168 JN.1 cases. While the JN.1 variant is known to be highly transmissible and has been responsible for surges across the world, doctors said it's not virulent and has been causing a mild disease.

"There haven't been too many hospitalisations either. Most positive cases are coming from private doctors,'' said a civic official on Saturday.

Apart from the two deaths, the state on Saturday recorded 154 COVID cases. While 14,790 tests were conducted in the state, the positivity rate was 1 per cent.

The number of active cases has been inching towards the four-digit mark with 931 cases right now. Most of the patients (96 per cent) are in home isolation.