Mumbai will soon hit the 3-lakh mark for coronavirus infections, becoming the third Indian city to do so. More worryingly, critical cases as a proportion of active cases have been rising. While the rise in daily infections in the commercial capital is slowing–from 2,658 cases on October 7 to just 632 on December 20– persons critically infected, and needing to be admitted to ICUs or requiring ventilators, number more than they did a month ago.
On Sunday, 12.7% of the Covid infected required an ICU bed, up from 12.4% a fortnight ago and just 8% on November 6. Again, on Sunday, 8.7% needed a ventilator compared with 6% a fortnight back and 5% on November 6.
Although Mumbai is in a fairly comfortable position with regard to hospital occupancy rates, a rise in critical patients is nonetheless not good for the city. Also, while it may appear the positivity rate– new cases upon new tests–in the city has declined, Mumbai has increased its reliance on rapid antigen tests. Nearly half the tests conducted in the city are using the RAT technique. Besides, there has been no increase in testing capacity. Tests per million in Mumbai at 155,632 are a fraction of Bengaluru’s 421,207 and Delhi’s 387,997.
