Covid-19: With 788 new cases, active tally crosses 4,500 mark in state

Mumbai: Maharashtra on Sunday reported one Covid-19 death and 788 new cases across the state, taking the active cases tally to 4,587, as per the state Covid-19 bulletin. Mumbai, too, saw a rise as 221 new cases were reported. The active cases in the city stood at 1,434.

As per a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) health official, out of 221 cases in the city, 204 have mild symptoms and are quarantined at home.

“We are not seeing hospitalisations specifically because the infection is not severe like in the first and second wave. The majority of the hospitalised patients are primarily admitted for some other illness and incidentally found positive for Covid-19. However, since the cases are on a rise, citizens should follow Covid-19 appropriate behaviours like wearing masks and following hand as well as cough hygiene,” said Dr Mangala Gomare, executive health officer, BMC.

Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, the union health minister, reviewed the Public Health Preparedness for the management of Covid-19 and the vaccination progress with states on Friday. States/Union Territories were further informed that currently WHO is closely tracking one variant of interest (VOI), XBB.1.5 and six other variants are under monitoring (BQ.1, BA.2.75, CH.1.1, XBB, XBF and XBB.1.16).

The ministry said the prevalence of XBB.1.16 increased from 21.6% in Feb to 35.8% in March 2023. However, no evidence of an increase in hospitalisation or mortality has been reported, it said.

A state health official too said there has been a gradual but sustained increase in Covid-19 cases since mid-Feb 2023 although the hospitalisation and death rates have remained low. While the state and civic health officials are focusing on closely monitoring influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI), mock drills will be conducted in both private and public hospitals across the state on April 10-11 to assess infrastructure readiness to tackle covid cases if there is a rise in hospitalisation.