Mumbai's COVID-19 case count crosses 88,000; 68 more deaths

The tally of coronavirus cases in Mumbai rose to 88,795 on Thursday with 1,282 new patients being reported, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

As the virus claimed 68 more lives in the metropolis, fatality count due to the pandemic rose to 5,129, it said.

The number of recovered patients in the city increased to 59,751 with 591 persons getting discharged from hospitals since Wednesday evening.

The recovery rate of COVID-19 patients in Mumbai has improved to 67 per cent, the BMC said in a release.

The city has 23,915 active COVID-19 cases, it said.

For the first time since the coronavirus outbreak began, the average growth rate of cases in the city has dropped to 1.49 per cent, the civic body said. On June 30, the average growth rate of COVID-19 cases in the city was 1.69 per cent.

According to the BMC, the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases in the city has improved to 47 days against 41 days by June-end.

6,634 buildings in the city have been sealed and there are 746 containment zones in slums and chawls where one or more COVID-19 patients were found. Five civic wards, four from western suburbs and G- south ward in Island City where Asia's largest slum Dharavi is located, have over 5,000 cases each, according to the BMC's infographic based on July 8 data. With 5,934 cases, K-east ward that includes Andheri East area has the highest number of reported cases among 24 wards in the city. B ward that houses Dongari and Masjid Bandar area in Island City has the lowest 812 cases. The highest 397 COVID-19 deaths have been recorded from G-north ward, while the lowest 49 deaths have been recorded in A ward in south Mumbai.

The C ward in south Mumbai has the lowest number of active coronavirus cases at 200, whereas P-north ward in Western suburbs has the highest2,103 active cases.