Mumbai records 8,938 new COVID-19 cases; Mayor hints at halt in vaccination in city

In a heartening development, Mumbai recorded 1,490 fewer daily COVID-19 cases on Thursday, April 8, with 8,938 persons testing positive for the novel coronavirus. This propelled the city's COVID-19 tally to 4,91,698. At present, there are 86,279 active COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra's capital out of which 83 per cent are asymptomatic ones. The number of recovered soared to 3,92,514 after 4,503 patients were discharged in the day. Meanwhile, 23 COVID-19 deaths were reported on Thursday, taking Mumbai's fatality toll to 11,874. The city's case positivity rate and fatality rate as of Wednesday stands at 10.84 per cent and 2.45 per cent.

So far, 44,54,140 samples have been tested for COVID-19 in Mumbai which amounts to 3,18,153 tests per million population. The number of COVID-19 cases in the city grew at a rate of 2.03 per cent from April 1- April 7. The number of available oxygen beds, ventilator beds, and ICU beds in Mumbai stands at 2005, 58, and 72 respectively. 

While there are 71 active containment zones currently, 750 buildings have been sealed. 39,270 high-risk contacts have been traced in the last 24 hours. At present, 1037 high-risk contacts are admitted to Corona Care Centres 1. The patient doubling rate in the city is 33 days. The recovery rate of the Mumbai district remains constant at 80 per cent.

Mumbai Mayor hints at shortage of vaccine doses

Earlier in the day, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar revealed that the COVID-19 inoculation in Mumbai will come to a halt from Friday onwards if the city does not receive a sufficient number of vaccine doses. Moreover, she added that the shortage of doses will make it difficult for the authorities to administer the second dose of the vaccine to those who are eligible. As per reports, many civic-run, as well as private hospitals in Mumbai too, have put up boards outside their premises which state that the COVID-19 inoculation process cannot be carried out owing to the unavailability of vaccines. 

This development comes even as PM Modi announced that 'Tika Utsav' will be organised in all states from April 11 to 14 to ensure the maximum vaccination coverage of people aged above 45. While he defended the Centre's age cap for vaccination, he did not specifically address the complaints of vaccine shortage from some states such as Maharashtra. While a total of 13,98,925 persons have been inoculated in Mumbai till now, 1,80,207 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too.