E-Paper
Maharashtra breaches 6.4 million mark of Covid-19 cases; rise in delta plus cases a cause of worry
With 4,408 fresh infections, Maharashtra crossed the 6.4 million mark of Covid-19 cases on Tuesday. The state’s tally stood at 6,401,213. The state saw 116 casualties.
With 4,408 fresh infections, Maharashtra crossed the 6.4 million mark of Covid-19 cases on Tuesday. The state’s tally stood at 6,401,213. The tally of active cases also reduced to 61,306 as 5,424 recoveries were reported in the last 24 hours.
The state saw 116 casualties. Sangli reported the highest toll with 36 deaths. Of them, 29 were found in the district and the rest in the city. It was followed by Satara with 30 fatalities.
Even as the decline in daily cases is slow, the Maharashtra government has granted relaxations in restrictions across the state from August 15. Officials said the impact of relaxations will be known in the next 15 days and further decisions will be taken after assessing the situation.
On the other hand, Delta plus variant cases are rising in the state. Till Monday, the state had 76 Delta plus cases, a concern for the state administration.
Maharashtra is the state with highest number of Covid-19 cases. Now, it also has maximum Delta plus variant cases.
Significantly, it has also achieved a milestone of administering 50 million doses on Monday. It vaccinated 677,974 doses on Tuesday and has administered a total 50,710,698 doses till date, according to the data available on Co-Win portal.
Dr Shashank Joshi, a member of the state task force for Covid-19, said, “Delta plus is an offshoot from AY.1. It’s a myth that Delta plus cases are rising in a significant number. There is a small number of Delta plus cases, but they have not reached any critical threshold. It is only 1% of the total number of positive samples collected for genomic sequencing. In terms of population it is only 0.0001%.”
According to the health officials, most of the cases being reported in the state are from Delta variants in the last few months.
Dr Joshi said that Delta variants were responsible for the second wave and continued to be the dominant strain even today. “A large part of the second wave was driven by the Delta variant. We still have the Delta strain very much prevalent in the population. For example, in a city like Mumbai, till January 2021 it was predominant by B.1617.1, which is being named as ‘Kappa’ and from March, it was gradually replaced by Delta (B.1.617.2). Kappa is almost virtually extinct. But the problem is Delta is more contagious. It is as contagious as chickenpox and a faster spreading virus than its previous variants,” he said.
On August 15, the state government allowed reopening of shopping malls and allowed other establishments including malls to operate till 10pm. It also allowed gyms, parlours and salons to open with 50 per cent capacity. It has further opened local train services in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) for fully vaccinated people.
“Maharashtra is also looking at fewer cases; compared to last month, daily cases have come to half. The districts of concern are also shrinking. We are reaching some degree of herd immunity to the Delta variant and thus we are gradually removing curbs. Every fortnight, we will see more and more relaxations and will assess if there is any negative impact of relaxations or not.”
Dr Joshi said that the current data shows even if the state is relaxing the curbs, the daily cases are still on decline.
On Sunday, Mumbai clocked 196 cases and reported a total 739,722 cases till date. It also recorded two fatalities taking the toll to 15,925. In the past 24 hours, the state tested 179,488 samples and had a positivity rate of 2.45%. However, the overall positivity rate of the state stood at 12.48%, according to the data issued by the state health department.
