In 5 charts: Why Mumbai's Covid numbers have triggered alarm

NEW DELHI: India's financial capital Mumbai has emerged as one of the worst-affected Covid cities in the country after witnessing a worrying surge in infections over the last few days.

On Sunday, Mumbai reported over 11,000 new cases — its single highest rise since the pandemic hit India. The massive surge also fueled Maharashtra's record tally of over 57,000 new infections today.

Here are five charts explaining Mumbai's grim Covid situation ...


Worse than worst-hit states

Not just Maharashtra, Mumbai alone has been reporting more Covid cases than all the other worst-hit states across the country.



Going by the latest figures, Mumbai's 11,000+ cases are higher than Chhattisgarh (5,818) and Karnataka's (4,373) Saturday figures put together.

No other state in India has reported over 10,000 cases in the second Covid wave, indicating that Mumbai alone is one of the major contributors to the ongoing surge.



Even Pune is witnessing a major surge in cases with the city reporting over 12,000 fresh infections on Sunday.

Second wave more severe

The second wave of infections in Mumbai is way more severe than the first wave back in September-October last year.



Even during its peak in October 2020, Mumbai then recorded its all-time high of just over 2,800 new cases.

In the second wave, its latest daily record is almost five-times as high.

Steep rise

The ongoing wave in India, especially Maharashtra, is seemingly more infectious than the one witnessed last year. At least that's what the numbers suggest.

Exactly a month ago on March 4, Mumbai had reported 1,104 new cases. It took just over 30 days for this figure to surpass the 11,000 mark.



In the last week itself, Mumbai has cumulatively added over 53,000 infections to its tally.

This is a clear indication of how rapidly the infections are spreading across the city.

However, the only silver lining is the low case fatality rate (CFR) in Maharashtra as well as Mumbai.

On April 3, Mumbai's CFR was 0.27%.

Second highest active cases

And it's not just Mumbai. Cities like Pune, Nagpur, Nashik and Thane are also behind Maharashtra's Covid spike.

At 60,846, Mumbai has the second highest number of active cases in India after Pune (73,599).



Thane, which adjoins Mumbai, has also been reporting a similar surge in infections over the last few days. It currently has over 48,600 active cases.

10% of India's total caseload

With fresh cases hovering around the 10,000 mark, Mumbai alone accounted for 10% of India's total cases as on Sunday morning.



Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government on Sunday tightened the Covid restrictions across the state to curb the spread of infections.

In an order issued after a meeting chaired by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, the government announced that night curfew will be imposed from 8pm to 7am every day. It also said that lockdown will be imposed every weekend from Friday 8pm to Monday 7am.