Mumbai and Delhi witnessed a steep hike in COVID-19 cases, with the former reporting over 20,000 cases for the second consecutive day, on Friday.
Mumbai recorded 20,971 infections, the highest one-day spike to date. During the second wave, Mumbai's peak daily rise in cases was 11,163, reported on April 4. Mumbai also saw six deaths due to the pandemic in the past 24 hours, highest in a day in the last two months, said a BMC release.
The cases went up by 790, compared to Thursday, when the city had reported 20,181 new infections. The spike in daily cases is 230.40 per cent since January 1, 2022, when the city logged 6,347 new COVID-19 cases.
As many as 17,335 fresh cases were recorded in Delhi, the highest single-day rise since May 8. Nine deaths were also reported from the city. The case positivity rate mounted to 17.73 per cent.
Delhi had reported 15,097 new cases on Thursday at a positivity rate of 15.34 per cent.
The huge spike in fresh cases over the past several days in the two cities is being recorded amid a significant jump in cases of new Omicron variant of COVID.
Meanwhile, Mumbai municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said a new wave of the pandemic began from December 21, 2021, when the city recorded 327 new daily cases. Since then, cases have risen 6,313.14 per cent.
He maintained that there was no need for lockdown as the death rate, bed occupancy and medical oxygen demand were low.
—With PTI inputs
