Healthcare workers in PPE stand outside a donning area at a COVID-19 care facility in Mumbai, May 4, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Niharika Kulkarni
Mumbai: Mumbai on Sunday did not report even a single death due to COVID-19 for the first time nearly since the pandemic broke out in March last year, a top official said.
Mumbai civic commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said the city reported zero death due to the virus during the day for the first time since March 26, 2020.
“This is a great news for all of us in Mumbai,” he said.
(Editor’s note: In March-July last year, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation recorded ‘excess deaths’ to the tune of 100%+ of deaths in that same period in 2019. Disease-modelling expert Murad Banaji had concluded, after further analysis, that the city’s “recorded COVID-19 death count should be multiplied by a factor of 1.6-1.8 to obtain the true death count” for September 2020, as a result.
While a considerable amount of time has passed from July last year, the point is that Mumbai, like many other parts of India, has also missed COVID-19 deaths and has updated its data later.)
The metropolis had reported its first COVID-19 case on March 11, 2020, and its first death six days later, on March 17 that year.
“As municipal commissioner, I salute team MCGM (Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai) for their spectacular performance,” he added.
The city logged 367 positive cases on Sunday. With this, Mumbai’s caseload has now reached 7,50,808 and death toll 16,180.
A statement from the civic health department said that 518 patients recuperated during the day, pushing the recovery count to 7,27,084.
A total of 28,697 tests were carried out, which took the overall test count to 1,09,57,392.
There are 5,030 active COVID-19 cases in Mumbai at present. Its recovery rate is 97%, while the case doubling rate is 1,214 days. The overall growth rate of coronavirus cases from October 10 to 16 was 0.06%.
Mumbai had recorded its highest of 11,163 cases on April 4, 2021, and most deaths at 90 on May 1 this year.
Chahal said that a total of 97% of eligible citizens of Mumbai have received their their first dose of vaccination and 55% are fully vaccinated.
“Let us all keep the mask on our face and let every citizen of Mumbai get vaccinated if some of us haven’t yet. I appeal to everyone to help us keep Mumbai safe,” he added.