Covid-19: Despite surge in cases, MMR’s share in daily cases dips

However, the MMR, which comprises nine municipal corporations, including Mumbai and the rural areas of Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts, however, continues to be the most affected region in Maharashtra

Even though there is a surge in daily Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra over the past month, the contribution of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to the daily tally has reduced for the first time. The MMR, which comprises nine municipal corporations, including Mumbai and the rural areas of Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts, however, continues to be the most affected region in Maharashtra.

Senior citizens queue up to get vaccinated against Covid-19 outside BKC centre in Mumbai, on Tuesday, March 2. (HT file photo)

Of the total 16,620 cases reported on March 14, as many as 3,676, or 22.11% cases, were reported from the MMR. But the region’s share was much higher in the past two months -- 27.88% and 31.01% on February 14 and January 14 respectively, as per the data released by the state health department.

MMR’s contribution in the past six days (March 13-8) has remained between 19% and 21% but it was much higher even last year. On December 14, it was 31.36% (925 of 2,949 cases), 34.85% on November 14 (1,477 of 4,237 cases) and 38.18% on October 14 -- 4,029 of the total 10,552 cases reported on that day, according to the data.

The nine municipal corporations of the region are Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivli, Mira-Bhayander, Panvel, Ulhasnagar, Vasai-Virar and Bhiwandi.

Till March 14, the region has reported the most cases, 759,860 cases, among all regions of the state. It also means 32.83% of the total cases are from MMR.

Pune region follows in terms of daily case count. On March 14, it recorded 3,609 cases, the second-highest contribution to cases in the state. It is also the second most-affected area with 560,038 cases, as of March 14.

It comprises three municipal corporations — Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur and rural areas of Pune, Solapur and Satara districts.

“Earlier, the maximum cases used to come from MMR but these days, other areas such as Nagpur, Amravati, Yavatmal, Buldhana, Pune, Nashik and Jalgaon are contributing in big numbers, which is the reason the region’s share has come down,” said a senior health official, wishing not to be named.

After clocking over 15,000 Covid-19 cases daily for two days in a row, Maharashtra breached the 16,000-mark to record a 164-day high with 16,620 fresh cases on Sunday. It also breached the 2.3 million mark of cases as the count reached 2,314,413. The active cases in the state also climbed to 126,213.