Covid-19 cases in Mumbai Metropolitan Region rise slightly in past few days

Covid-19 cases in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) have seen a slight surge in the past 15 days with the daily average of 250 new infections registered in mid August climbing up to 350 in the past five days.

As per the state health department, Mumbai recorded around 325 cases on August 1, which dropped to 262 on August 15 but reached 345 on August 29. Similarly, Navi Mumbai had 72 fresh infections on August 1, which decreased to 51 on August 15, but rose to 87 on Sunday. Kalyan-Dombivli and Vasai-Virar, too, have shown a similar trend in the past 15 days. However, the graph is a bit different for Thane city, which reported 67 cases on August 1, which decreased to 50 in mid-August and dropped further to 44 new infections on Sunday.

Maharashtra health department officials say the surge is not a trend and the easing of restrictions could have resulted in the minuscule rise in the number of infections. Among the most significant relaxations, suburban trains in Mumbai were opened for fully-vaccinated travellers starting August 15.

On Monday, Maharashtra reported 3,741 Covid-19 infections, taking its tally to more than 6.46 million Covid cases including 137,209 deaths, 52 of which were recorded in the 24 hours preceding the release of the state health bulletin on Monday. The active case count in the state was 51,834 on Monday.