Although more than 3,200 cases were detected last week, only five to six per cent required hospitalisation. Those who had a travel history were admitted as a precautionary measure. The number of cases in the city has been rising for the last 10 days. There were 279 cases reported on December 16, which got doubled within a week. On December 22, the city reported 490 cases and on December 24, the number grew to 683. From December 15 to December 24, 3,499 patients were found to be infected with a daily average of 390 cases. The daily average in the first half of the month is nearly 201 cases. Though the cases are increasing sharply, the good part is that most of the cases are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, say officials.

On December 23, though the number of active patients rose to 2,813, almost 50 per cent more than the last week, the number of bed occupants did not increase sharply. On Friday, 1,086 beds were occupied out of 15,299 beds. “Cases are being reported from the time we increased tracing and testing. In a few cases, where the people had a history of foreign travel, close positive contacts of the persons were admitted in hospitals as a precautionary measure,” said a BMC official.