Maharashtra, Mumbai record their sharpest spike in Covid-19 cases

More than a year after Maharashtra reported its first Covid-19 infection on March 9, 2020, and Mumbai saw its first case two days later, India’s worst-hit state and city reported their sharpest one-day spikes of 25,833 and 2,877 infections, respectively, on Thursday, according to official data

More than a year after Maharashtra reported its first Covid-19 infection on March 9, 2020, and Mumbai saw its first case two days later, India’s worst-hit state and city reported their sharpest one-day spikes of 25,833 and 2,877 infections, respectively, on Thursday, according to official data. Maharashtra eclipsed its September 11, 2020 caseload of 24,886, while Mumbai went past its October 7 record of 2,848. September 11 was the peak of the first wave of infections in the state.

(Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

On Tuesday, the state government admitted it was witnessing a second wave of Covid-19 infections, days after a central team report said the state was in the beginning of one. The daily caseload in Maharashtra had dropped to as low as fewer than 2,000 cases in the first week of February. After reporting 1,927 infections on February 2, fresh cases started rising to 6,397 on March 1, 10,216 on March 6, 15,051 on March 15 and crossed the 20,000 mark after 172 days on March 17 (23,179 infections).

Dr Tatyarao Lahane, director of Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), said although it is the peak, one more week is needed to assess the situation. “We need to access whether the figures come down or go upwards from here. This will require at least a week. We have, however, managed to reduce the number of deaths from the peak of 350 to 60. Even this, too, needs to be curtailed further,” said Lahane, adding that cases have also increased owing to more tests being conducted. The state’s cases tally reached 2,396,340 on Thursday, while its toll went up to 53,138 with 58 more deaths.

Meanwhile, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said the Centre has given its green light to 134 private hospitals to start vaccination and asked authorities to chalk out a plan to vaccinate 300,000 people daily.

Dr Ameet Mandot, who runs Gut Clinic at Parel, blamed both the citizens as well as authorities for the steep rise in cases. “Citizens have become very casual and there is no seriousness shown by them in adhering to Covid-19 norms. In addition, authorities are failing to enforce rules as we are witnessing crowded marriage halls, functions sans social distancing and revellers in pubs dancing without any masks. There seems to be no effort by authorities to curb this,” said Mandot.

Thackeray, in his review meeting on Thursday to assess the Covid-19 spread, told doctors to keep a watch on the various strains of the virus and guide the government in treating the same. He also ordered authorities to complete vaccinations of priority groups within the next three to four months.

As of Thursday, of the 166,353 active cases, Pune continues to lead the state with 35,539 active infections, followed by Nagpur with 24,209, Mumbai and Thane take the third and fourth positions with 17,153 and 15,548 active cases respectively. The total number of recoveries stood at 21,75,565.