Rise In Covid-19 Cases After Mumbai Local Starts For General Public; But Govt Denies Any Link

Post the resumption of local train services, financial capital of India Mumbai has witnessed a sudden spike in number of covid cases. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) — which comprises Mumbai city and its satellite towns, after a string of days with relatively low numbers of new cases and deaths, has witnessed a surge in number of cases.

On Wednesday, 1,075 new Covid cases have been reported in the MMR. This is a 55 per cent surge from 693 cases recorded on Tuesday. The number of cases has crossed in the figure of 500 after almost a month. In the first week of February, almost 400-450 cases on average were reported in Mumbai city. However, on Wednesday the number increased to 558.

Due To Increased Testing At Arrival: Officials

The Test Positivity Rate (TPR) in the city when tested 15688 cases was found out to be 3.5 percent. The TPR was 2.6 percent on Tuesday.

Local authorities claimed that this is due to increased testing at arrival points in the city and not because of reopening of local trains.

BMC officials said that the increased number of cases cannot be attributed to the local transporter but rather to the increased number of testing at airports and other destinations.

Out of total, 12000 Active Patients in MMR

In Maharashtra, the cumulative number of cases stand at 20.52 lakh with the recovery rate now being stabilized at 95.7 per cent. Out of 35,000 active patients, 12,000 are in the MMR. On Wednesday, 2,421 have patients have been recovered.