Mumbai on Wednesday reported 15,014 new Covid-19 cases, the highest single-day surge since the start of the pandemic exceeding 11,163 cases last registered in April last year.

Maharashtra reported 26,538 new Covid cases and 8 deaths. The case fatality rate in the state is 2.09%.

Omicron is now confirmed as the predominant circulating strain. 144 patients were reported with Omicron variant in the state on Wednesday by the National Institute of Virology. Out of this, 100 Omicron cases were reported in Mumbai, 11 in Nagpur, 7 in Thane and Pune municipal corporations, 6 in PCMC, 5 in Kolhapur, 2 each in Amravati, Ulhasnagar, and Bhivandi Nizampur, and 1 each in Panvel and Osmanbad. Mumbai has a total of 508 Omicron cases as of date.

At the national level, West Bengal reported 14,022 new cases and 17 deaths over the last 24 hours. Maharashtra, WB, Delhi, Kerala, TN, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Gujarat have emerged as states of concern. India reported over 6.3 times rise in Covid cases in the last eight days and sharp rise in case positivity from 0.79% on Dec 29 to 5.03% on Jan 5. Omicron is now confirmed as the predominant circulating strain in the country.

India on Wednesday also reported its first Omicron death in Udaipur, Rajasthan. According to the doctors, the 73-year-old patient had co-morbidities including diabetes, hypertension and hypothyroidism.

Meanwhile, the BMC on Wednesday administered one crore first-dose vaccines to eligible persons in Mumbai including vaccinations at all government, municipal and private vaccination centres in the city.

To date, the civic body has administered more than 1.81 crore vaccines, both first and the second dose, in Mumbai.

25 lakh first-doses were administered by May 31, 2021, 50 lakh by July 19, 75 lakh by September 15, and 1 crore first-dose vaccinations were recorded on Wednesday afternoon.  

In terms of second-dose, BMC administered 25 lakh second-doses on May 5, 50 lakh on June 26, 2021, 75 lakh on August 7, and 1 crore doses on September 4, 2021. Since then, 1 crore 25 lakh vaccinations have been completed on September 28 and 15 million vaccinations have been completed on November 10.

Nationwide, vaccination started on January 16, 2021 and was extended to include 15 to 18-year-olds from January 3, 2022. BMC has administered first dose to about 15,110 adolescents so far.

“Considering the citizens above 18 years of age in Mumbai metropolis a target to complete vaccination by giving both vaccines to a total of 92,36,500 Mumbaikars. In comparison, 99,80,629 citizens have been given the first dose by the end of this afternoon. This is 108% more than the target. The second dose is 88%  which is 81,37,850 citizens,” BMC said in its statement.

“For 15 to 18 age group in Mumbai metropolis, the state government has set a target of vaccinating 6,12,461 youths. However, based on an estimated population of 2021, BMC has set a target of vaccinating around 9.22 lakh adolescents,” the civic body  said.

Mayor Kishori Pednekar appealed to all eligible citizens to complete their second dose of vaccine on time.

Further, with exponential Covid-19 infections in the city, municipal commissioner IS Chahal in a written communique to private hospitals has called for keeping additional beds ready for patients in the coming days. Chahal said that as 10%-12% patients are symptomatic daily and over 95% are being detected in non-slum areas and extra hospital beds will be required in the days to come. The directives are being issued to 142 hospitals in the city to scale up bed numbers by January 10.

Health minister Rajesh Tope said that under the present situation 100 per cent lockdown is not required but there is a need to impose restrictions to prevent crowding. He said that 90% of the cases are asymptomatic and of the 10 percent symptomatic patients, only 1%-2% require hospitalisation.

In another development, Maharashtra higher and technical education minister Uday Samant on Wednesday announced that college campuses across the state will be closed and teaching will be conducted online till February 15. The decision is applicable to all colleges, universities, public, private as well as deemed universities.