Mumbai Reports 8 New Covid Cases, Focus On Genome Sequencing Of Samples

Mumbai on Wednesday logged eight new cases of COVID-19, taking the overall tally to 11,55,064, while no fresh death linked to the infection was recorded, the civic body said, as officials shifted to focus on genome sequencing of samples in view of a surge in cases in some parts of the world, but no screening of international air passengers has started.

The coronavirus death count in the financial capital remained unchanged at 19,745.

On Tuesday, Mumbai recorded seven cases and zero deaths.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said it has been focusing on genome sequencing as per the Centre's guidelines related to coronavirus, but no decision has been taken so far about screening air passengers at the international airport in the city.

Sanjeev Kumar, the additional municipal commissioner, told PTI they are focusing on genome sequencing of positive swab samples to keep track of any new COVID-19 variants after the Union government's guidelines.

Genomic sequencing is a laboratory test that can map out the whole genetic makeup of a virus from a patient's swab sample.

However, no decision has been taken yet on screening international passengers at the Mumbai airport, he said.

The city is left with 37 active COVID-19 cases after seven patients recovered from the infection, pushing up their cumulative count to 11,35,282, said a BMC bulletin.

The case doubling rate has increased to 1,70,567 days, while the coronavirus recovery rate stood at 98.3 per cent, it said.

As many as 3,758 swab samples were tested on Wednesday, up from 1,837 the previous day, for detection of COVID-19 in the metropolis, taking their total tally to 1,86,10,564, said the bulletin.

The growth rate of coronavirus cases between December 14 and December 20 was 0.0004 per cent, it added. 

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