Maharashtra clocks lowest single-day tally in third wave of Covid

Mumbai: Maharashtra on Monday clocked its lowest single-day tally in 49 days with 1,966 new cases

Mumbai: Maharashtra on Monday clocked its lowest single-day tally in 49 days with 1,966 new cases. The tally was attributed to low testing in the last 24 hours, state officials said, adding that the trend of daily cases is on a decline. Mumbai, meanwhile, added 192 fresh infections, including eight Omicron cases.

Maharashtra’s active case count has dropped to 36,447 on Monday. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

Maharashtra’s active case count has dropped to 36,447 on Monday. In 24 hours, the state tested 90,479 samples, which is a drop of 35,609 tests per the state’s last seven-day average of tests. The state had a positivity rate of 2.17% on Monday. Maharashtra also added 12 fatalities.

Interestingly, in the last 30 days, the share of cases from urban areas in the Covid-19 cases reported has reduced, while the share of fresh cases from rural areas has marginally increased. An analysis of the state health department data between January 15 to February 13, showed that the state added 550,626 cases in the second fortnight of January, of which 352,344 cases or 63.99% were from urban areas and 198,282 cases or 36.01% were from rural areas.

Urban areas such as Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, and Pune and also parts of the talukas in the districts contributed to the cases due to a large floating population, officials said. Gradually it spread to rural areas more. However, the weekly positivity rate in the rural centres is on a decline, even though the daily cases are high there, officials said.

“The positivity rate in the urban areas such as Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, which were reporting a high number of cases, has dropped. In the rural areas, though the daily rate is higher, there is a decline there as well,” said Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer.

With the decline in the overall trend of the third wave of Covid-19 infections, the state cabinet later this week could discuss further relaxation in curbs put to contain the spread of coronavirus in January. Senior health department officials said that they do not intend to ease the curbs till February end as they do not want any relapse. “The cases are on a decline, but the viral activity is still on. Any laxity in behaviour by the people could turn the graph. The chief minister will consult the state Covid task force members and then decide accordingly,” a senior bureaucrat said, requesting anonymity.