Mumbai sees 3672 new COVID cases with 28,636 samples tested; growth rate at 0.66%

With just 28,636 samples tested in 24 hours, Mumbai on Sunday reported 3672 new COVID cases and 79 deaths. With 5542 new recoveries, cured tally rose to 5,83,873. Mumbai has 6,56,204 cases of which 57,342 are active and 13,330 fatalities.

Mumbai: 3925 new COVID cases

Mumbai's recovery rate has risen to 89% now while its growth rise has soared to 0.66% amid strict lockdown. BMC reported that 54,90,241 samples have been tested till date with an 11.89% positivity rate. With the increasing number of cases, BMC reported that 22 out of 1501 ventilator beds are vacant, while 70 out of 2923 ICU beds are vacant, till date. 

No vaccination of 45+ on Monday

Vaccination of people above 45 years will not be conducted in Mumbai on Monday due to the shortage of vaccines, the city civic body said on Sunday. Vaccination for the people in the age group of 18 to 44 years will continue at five centres in the megapolis, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in a statement. "Citizens in the 18-44 age group will be allowed in the vaccination centres based on the slots assigned to them after registration on CO-WIN application," it said. "Due to the shortage of doses, vaccination for the people above 45 years will not be conducted on Monday," the BMC stated. The civic body has identified five centres for COVID- 19 vaccination for the 18-44 age category at Nair Hospital, BKC Jumbo Facility, Cooper Hospital, Seven Hills Hospital and Rajawadi Hospital.

India's vaccine shortage crisis

On April 19, the Centre relaxed the age bar for vaccination from May 1 onwards and mentioned that vaccine manufacturers can supply 50 per cent of its doses to state governments and in the open market. The private hospitals shall have to procure their supplies of the COVID-19 vaccines exclusively from this quota.  Vaccination shall continue at Centre's vaccination centres for healthcare and frontline workers and those above 45 years, free of cost. Both Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India (SII) have offered vaccines at RS 150/dose to Centre, but at Rs 300 and Rs 400 respectively to state governments.

Soon enough, most state governments placed lakhs of orders with the two vaccine manufacturers, but are yet to receive their orders. States like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa, Jammu-Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Delhi have postponed their vaccination drive by two weeks atleast due to a shortage of vaccine doses. The Co-WIN portal which opened registration for those above 18 years, only allows registration as most states do not have stocks to schedule vaccination appointments.