As India continues to witness resurgence in fresh Covid-19 cases, Mumbai, one of the most affected cities, ramped up its efforts to halt the spread of the virus with increased testing while also increasing the provision of beds for Covid patients.

The municipal corporation of Great Mumbai (MCGM) conducted 40,000 tests on Tuesday, followed by 47,000 on Wednesday. The total number of Covid patients in Wednesday’s tests was 5,365, which is a positivity of 12%, according to a report received Thursday. There were six deaths too. MCGM has resolved to increase the number of daily tests to 60,000 a day in coming weeks, municipal commissioner IS Chahal said in an official note.

MCGM has decided to increase the number of DCH Covid beds from the current 13,773 (of which 5,140 are vacant) to 21,000 in the next 15 days to meet any eventuality.

Chahal advised citizens to avoid panic, considering that the health infrastructure was sufficient and the mortality rate was low (200 death between February 10 and March 24, which is an average of 4.6 deaths per day, for the 56,220 positive cases for this period, the mortality rate works out to 0.3%). He said the civic authorities were completely in control of the situation, though he also urged citizens to cooperate and follow Covid-appropriate behaviour.

MCGM has also completed 10,00,000 vaccinations on Thursday, and has resolved to administer 1,00,000 vaccine per day in the coming days.

53,476 new cases across India
Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases in India at 31,855 (59.57%), the union health ministry said in an update. It is followed by Punjab with 2,613 while Kerala reported 2,456 new cases.

These three along with Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat together account for 80.63% of the 53,476 new cases reported in the 24 hours to Thursday morning. There are ten states that are displaying an upward trajectory in daily new cases.

India’s total active caseload stands at 3.95 lakh (3,95,192), comprising 3.35% of the total positive cases. A net incline of 26,735 cases is recorded from the total active caseload in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab account for 74.32% of total active cases in the country. Maharashtra alone accounts for 62.91% of the total active cases in the country.

Vaccine
Over 5.31 crore (5,31,45,709) vaccine doses have been administered through 8,61,292 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am Thursday. These include 79,80,849 healthcare workers (HCWs) (1st dose), 50,61,790 HCWs (2nd dose), 84,78,478 frontline workers (FLWs) (1st dose) and3 2,37,381 FLWs (2nd Dose), 51,31,949 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific co-morbidities (1st Dose) and 2,32,55,262 beneficiaries aged more than 60 years.

As on Day 68 of the vaccination drive (March 24), 23,03,305 vaccine doses were given, out of which, 21,13,323 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 38,243 sessions for 1st dose and 1,89,982 HCWs and FLWs received the second dose of vaccine.

Recoveries
India’s cumulative recoveries stand at 1,12,31,650. The national Recovery Rate is 95.28%. As many as 26,490 recoveries were registered in the last 24 hours. The gap between total recovered cases and the active cases stands at 10,836,458.

Deaths
There were 251 deaths in the last 24 hours. Six states account for 78.49% of the daily deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (95). Punjab follows with 39 daily deaths and Chhattisgarh reported 29 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Fourteen states/UTs have not reported any Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours. These are J&K (UT), Goa, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Lakshadweep, D&D & D&N, Ladakh (UT), Sikkim, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, A&N Islands, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

--With GN Bureau inputs