Good news! Mumbai to 'unlock' by February end, says city mayor amid dip in COVID cases

Mumbai, Feb 08: In what comes as a relief to several Mumbaikars, mayor Kishori Pednekar on Tuesday said that the authorities have decided to unlock Mumbai by end of this month (February), as reported by news agency ANI.

The announcement comes amid the city witnessing a decline in COVID-19 cases for the past several days.

"There is good news for Mumbaikars. Mumbai will be unlocked by the end of this month. We have made up our minds, but it is essential for the people to wear masks and observe social distancing," Pedenekar said to reporters.

On Monday, the city recorded 356 new COVID-19 cases- the lowest daily rise after December 21, 2021- and five fatalities, the city civic body said.

The tally of infections now stands at 10,50,194 and the COVID-19 death toll at 16,654, as per a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) bulletin.

Around 88 per cent or 313 cases out of the 356 are asymptomatic, it said.

The case positivity rate of Mumbai has come down to 1.19 per cent.

On December 21 last year, when the third wave of the pandemic began according to a senior official, Mumbai had reported 321 cases and one fatality due to the infection.

With 29,863 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, nearly 8,000 less than Saturday, the total number of samples tested so far in Mumbai went up to 1,55,79,281.

The case doubling rate now stands at 760 days. The overall growth rate of cases in Mumbai stood at 0.09 per cent between January 31 to February 6, the bulletin said.

Currently, 1,407 beds in various hospitals out of the total 37,116 beds remain occupied by patients suffering from COVID-19.

Mumbai is now free of containment zones in slums and chawls and only one building remains sealed to check the spread of infection.

On January 7 this year, Mumbai had reported the highest-ever 20,971 cases. According to municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, the third wave started on December 21, 2021.