Mumbai on Thursday reported 20,181 new coronavirus in the past 24 hours, a 33.06% rise as compared to Wednesday’s count of 15,166 infections.

Of the new infections, 85% persons are asymptomatic. A total of 1,170 patients were admitted to hospitals on Thursday, of whom 106 needed oxygen support.

Four people died due to Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, and the city currently has a recovery rate of 88%.

As many as 2,847 people recovered from Covid-19 or were discharged from hospitals in the past day, a sharp rise from the previous day’s count of 714 such persons.

Mumbai civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal said had on Monday that “stringent measures” may be implemented in the city if daily Covid-19 cases cross the 20,000-mark. “Right now we believe that even up to 20,000 cases a day, we will be comfortable in our hospitalisations, and comfortable in our oxygen requirement,” he had said.

Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar had told NDTV the next day that the city was ready to face even a “tsunami of coronavirus cases”. She said that authorities noted gaps during the second wave, and that now, more than 30,000 beds have been arranged and oxygen plants are operational.

Maharashtra on Thursday registered 36,265 new Covid-19 cases, which include 79 cases of the Omicron strain, PTI reported. The new cases were 36.65% higher than Wednesday’s count of 26,538 infections.

Thirteen people died due to the disease in the state in the past 24 hours, and the case fatality rate is currently 2.08%. Maharashtra currently has 1,14,847 active infections.

Meanwhile, Delhi on Thursday registered 15,097 new Covid-19 cases, a rise of 41.55% as compared to Wednesday’s count of 10,665 cases.

The Covid-19 tally on Thursday was the highest single-day rise since May 8, NDTV reported.

The positivity rate in the Capital also increased steeply to 15.34% from 11.88% a day earlier.

Six people died due to the coronavirus in Delhi in the past 24 hours, and the case fatality rate currently is 1.69%. There are presently 31,498 active Covid-19 cases in the Capital.

A total of 1,091 persons are currently admitted to hospitals in Delhi for Covid-19 treatment. Out of these, 211 persons are on oxygen support and 24 are on ventilator support.

The number of new cases on Thursday was in line with the prediction by Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, who said earlier in the day that the city may record over 14,000 new coronavirus cases.

Jain, however, said that there is no need for a lockdown right now, and the city is comfortably placed in terms of the number of beds occupied in hospitals, PTI reported. The minister added that the Capital is reporting a high number of cases as it was conducting a large number of tests.

“A lot of people [states] don’t conduct tests and say they don’t have cases,” Jain said. “We have been transparent.” The minister claimed that Delhi is conducting the highest number of coronavirus tests in the country.

Delhi has been witnessing an alarming rise in coronavirus cases over the last few days. The rapid increase is seen amid the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus disease.

On Monday, Jain had said that the Omicron variant was now the dominant strain of infections in the city. He said that 81.28% of the coronavirus cases in the Capital in the last few days were of the Omicron variant.

Delhi has reported the second-highest number (465) of Omicron cases in the country after Maharashtra (797) till Thursday, according to the Union health ministry. A total of 57 persons who contracted the Omicron strain of Covid-19 have recovered or have been discharged till now.