With Mumbai seeing a big drop in cases, task force says next 15 days hold the key for Maharashtra to cross 2nd wave peak
Migrant workers who arrived in the city on Monday seen at LTT. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
Even as this week remains crucial in identifying if the ‘ferocious second wave’ of COVID-19 in Mumbai is subsiding, a state task force expert has said that the state will take at least another 15 days to one month to reach the position.
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While the city’s Test Positivity Rate (TPR) has gone down in the past two weeks, it is still in two digits. Experts say that it should be much lesser now. While a decline in the second wave is not clear, the daily numbers have certainly been declining in the past two weeks. The government, meanwhile, wants to prepare for a third wave. Keeping this in mind, mass vaccination, double masking and avoiding crowded places along with hand sanitisation are a must.
“Surely Mumbai has noticed a flattening curve but whether the second wave is on the decline or not, we will be able to ascertain only after this week’s trend. State will take 15 days to a month to reach there as 13 to 14 districts are noticing a peak. This wave showed that there was faster spreading, but also faster recovery and a very low death rate. But because the numbers were very large, it strained our health care infrastructure,” said Dr Shashank Joshi of the state task force.
The government and civic administration have started preparing for the third wave through huge health care infrastructure. According to a social media post by Guardian Minister (Mumbai suburbs) Aaditya Thackeray, there will be around 5,000 normal and around 850 ICU beds at four new jumbo COVID centres. The government says it wants to ensure additional health care infrastructure to accommodate patients in future waves. According to the state task force, there are multiple waves of any viral flu and COVID also may have multiple waves.
Dr Joshi, while talking about the multiple waves that could affect the city, said, “Every time we attempt to unlock and people don’t follow COVID-appropriate behaviour, we will always be at the risk of entering another wave. For any flu, even if you look at Spanish flu, there are multiple waves that come in and so we have to be prepared. There are restrictions in place because we do not want to exhaust our already burdened health infrastructure. The government is committed to upgrading the health infra permanently.”
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