 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Mumbai on Tuesday reported 1,377 new COVID-19 cases, a steep rise from 809 infections reported a day ago, and one more death, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said.
With fresh additions, the coronavirus tally in the metropolis rose to 7,73,298, while the death toll increased to 16,374, the civic body said in a bulletin.
The day's tally of 1,377 was a sharp rise from 809 cases (indicating an increase of 70 per cent) reported on Monday, which had also recorded three deaths linked to coronavirus in the metropolis.
The recovery count increased to 7,48,537 after 338 people were discharged during the day, leaving Mumbai with 5,803 active cases, the bulletin said.
With 32,369 swab samples examined in the last 24 hours, the number of coronavirus tests in the country's financial capital went up to 1,35,24,610, BMC data showed.
It also revealed that the case doubling time has sharply dropped to 841 days, while Mumbai's coronavirus recovery rate stood at 97 per cent.
The growth rate of COVID-19 cases between December 21 and 27 was 0.07 per cent in the city, the bulletin said.
Delhi records 496 COVID-19 cases, highest since June 4
The national capital on Tuesday registered a massive spike in daily COVID-19 with 496 fresh cases, the highest since June 4, while the positivity rate also rose to 0.89 per cent along with one fatality due to coronavirus in the city.
The total number of cases of new Omicron variant of COVID-19 recorded in Delhi has also mounted to 165.There were 67 Omicron cases in the national capital on Friday.
According to the health department, 120 travellers who tested positive on their arrival at the IGI Airport have been admitted to hospitals in the last 24 hours.
Their samples would be sent for genome sequencing.
The 50 per cent jump in daily COVID-19 cases was reported hours after a ''Yellow alert'' was implemented in the national capital under which schools, colleges, cinemas and gyms will remain closed, shops dealing in non-essential items will open on odd-even basis, and metro trains will run with 50 per cent of seating capacity.
The Delhi Disaster Management Authority also extended the timing of the night curfew, imposed from Monday night, by an hour and it will now begin at 10 pm and will remain till 5 am.
In view of a rise in Omicron cases, the authorities in Delhi had begun genome sequencing of samples of daily COVID-19 cases on December 22 to ascertain if the new variant has spread in the community.
Earlier in the day, officials at LNJP said 56 out of 70 Omicron patients have been discharged. Three of the patients did not have travel history but had come in contact with those who were infected at a wedding in Rajasthan. These can be called "sporadic cases", they said.
According to officials at Batra Hospital, five Omicron patients are admitted there, and another seven patients are COVID positive, but their genome sequencing reports were still awaited.
Seven others have been discharged after testing negative for Omicron variant, they said and added that every patient is asymptomatic and all had a travel history.
The latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department, however, did not specify the variants detected.
Tuesday's figures are the highest since June 4 when Delhi recorded 523 fresh COVID-19 cases and 50 fatalities, while the positivity rate stood at 0.68 per cent, official figures stated.
In accordance with ''Level-1'' alert under the graded response action plan (GRAP), private offices will function with physical attendance of 50 per cent of the staff, barring essential categories.
Marriages and funerals will be allowed attendance of 20 people while all other types of gathering related to social, political, cultural, religious and festival events will be prohibited under the ''yellow alert'' that came into force with immediate effect.
Shops of non-essential goods and services in markets and malls can open based on odd-even formula from 10 AM to 8 PM. Restaurants will be permitted with 50 percent of capacity from 8 am to 10 pm while bars can also operate with the same capacity, but from 12 noon to 10 pm.