Maha sees 63K cases, its highest 1-day spike

Maharashtra on Sunday recorded its highest one-day spike with 63,294 new Covid-19 cases

Maharashtra on Sunday recorded its highest one-day spike with 63,294 new Covid-19 cases. The state also recorded 349 fatalities on Sunday.

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With more than half of April 2021 still to go, Maharashtra has already recorded more than 5 lakh cases, with 594,179 cases recorded between April 1 and 11. This is close to the caseload recorded in March when the state saw 657,910 new Covid-19 cases.

Since April 1, the state has been recording upwards of 40,000 cases and more than 200 deaths (except April 5) every day.

Between April 1 and 10, the state recorded 2,710 deaths. The state’s tally is 3,407,245 cases and 57,987 fatalities.

Maharashtra had entered 2021 with a huge drop in cases compared to the previous three months. Between November 2020 and February 2021, the state had recorded 487,519 infections.

On Sunday, Mumbai also recorded 9,986 cases and 79 fatalities. The city, which has been a major contributor to the increasing number of cases recorded daily, and has recorded 520,498 total cases and 12,023 deaths to date. The state has 565,587 active cases, of which Pune has more than a lakh active cases, followed by Mumbai, which has 91,100 active cases. The state has a recovery rate of 81.65% and 34,008 recoveries were also recorded on Sunday.

Owing to the increasing number of cases, of the 36 districts in Maharashtra, there are no beds available in close to 12 districts, a statement issued by the chief minister’s office stated. Of 20,252 ICU beds, 75% are occupied while 40% of 67,000 oxygen beds are also occupied in the state.

Amid the grim surge, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has been chairing meetings to impose stricter curbs in the state for a likely duration of at least two weeks. On Saturday, Thackeray said, “In last year’s lockdown, people were at home. Hence, tracing patients and most of their contacts was easier. Now, everything has opened up. There are practical difficulties in doing so.” He further said, “To break the Covid transmission chain, it is imperative that strict restrictions must be imposed for a certain period of time. The first priority will be given to saving lives. If this is a public health emergency, then the priority will be health of citizens and their lives.”

Currently, besides a complete lockdown on weekends, the state government has imposed a strict night curfew of 11 hours and a prohibition of gatherings of more than five people during the day. It has also announced shutting down of shops and establishments dealing in non-essential commodities, restaurants, eateries, malls, theatres, multiplexes and religious places.

Meanwhile, the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) crossed the 1-lakh-cases mark on Sunday, with fresh 2,552 cases recorded on Saturday. The civic body recorded the highest spike of Covid-19 cases since the pandemic. The total number of cases recorded in KDMC is 101,857.