Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra cross 4 million mark

Mumbai, meanwhile, recorded 7,654 fresh infections on Wednesday. The city, so far, has 601,713 confirmed cases, while the active case count in Mumbai is 83,450. Mumbai added 62 deaths on Wednesday, taking its toll to 12,508

Maharashtra on Wednesday reported its highest single-day death toll of 568 since the pandemic began, taking the Covid-19 death toll to 61,911. It also added 67,468 fresh Covid-19 cases to push its tally over the four million-mark to 4,027,827. The active case load in Maharashtra is now 695,747.

Representational image. (PTI)

Mumbai, meanwhile, recorded 7,654 fresh infections on Wednesday. The city, so far, has 601,713 confirmed cases, while the active case count in Mumbai is 83,450. Mumbai added 62 deaths on Wednesday, taking its toll to 12,508.

Maharashtra, which is slated to go under a strict lockdown from Thursday evening, is projected to add another 400,000 active cases in the next 11 days. According to a presentation on the Covid-19 situation given to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday, the state’s active case count will touch 1,094,996 by May 2. The state aims to arrest the rise in cases by introducing a complete lockdown. Of the nearly 1.1 million active cases, 300,000 cases are expected to be from Mumbai and its surrounding districts of Thane, Palghar and Raigad.

A health department official said the state is expected to face a shortage of hospital beds, unless the chain of transmission is broken through a lockdown. “Our projections had showed us that we would have an active caseload of 1.1 million by the end of this month. Even more worrying was the shortage of all types of beds across the state, including in major cities like Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur,” the official said.

As per the presentation, barring Amravati, Jalgaon and Kolhapur districts, Maharashtra is projected to face a severe shortage of hospital beds. Mumbai, which is projected to have an active caseload of 146,065 people, will be short of 6,433 oxygenated beds, 1,477 ICU beds and 121 ventilator beds. Similarly, Pune’s active caseload is projected to touch 185,162. It is projected to have a shortfall of 34,528 isolation beds, 13,118 oxygenated beds, 2,240 ICU beds, and 518 ventilator beds.