Maharashtra records 48,621 new Covid-19 infections

Maharashtra on Monday added 48,621 fresh Covid-19 infections, taking the tally of infections to 4,771,022

Maharashtra on Monday added 48,621 fresh Covid-19 infections, taking the tally of infections to 4,771,022. The slight dip in cases is however due to a drop in tests conducted in the past 24 hours owing to the weekend. The state tested 211,668 samples in the past 24 hours.

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Mumbai reported its lowest single-day figures since March 17 (2,377 cases), with 2,624 fresh infections. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) tested 23,542 samples in the past 24 hours—lower than what it tested on Saturday (28,636) and Friday (37,607). On Monday, the areas that constitute the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) added 4,056 new cases. Pune district added 7,718 new cases. Maharashtra added 567 fatalities, to push its toll to 70,851. Mumbai added 78 deaths.

The state has managed to control the rise of cases in the state over the past two weeks. The state was projected to have an active case count of 1.1 million (1,094,996) by May 2. However, the state managed to keep the growth of cases under control. The active cases in the state on Monday stood at 656,870.

Over the past few days, the active case count has remained around 650,000. Of the projected 1.1 million active cases, 300,000 cases are expected to be from Mumbai and its surrounding districts of Thane, Palghar and Raigad. The region now has 137,688 active cases.

State health department officials said the numbers are under control due to the tightening of restrictions on the movement of people by the government. Since mid-April, the state enforced a complete curfew, followed by a near lockdown from April 22.

“These are mathematical projections; they are sometimes accurate and often not. The idea of these projections is to understand the magnitude of the outbreak and what to prepare for. Having said that, the manner in which we were seeing cases in mid-April, if not 1.1 million, we would have reached 800,000-900,000 by now had the government not intervened with restrictions and imposing a lockdown,” said a senior health department official, who did not wish to be named.

Pune district continued to remain at the top in terms of the active case count with 108,915 cases, followed by Nagpur district with 70,186 active cases. Mumbai’s active caseload stood at 59,970, while Nashik remained at 51195.

The high number of daily deaths remains a concern for state health department and district authorities. Of the 567 deaths reported on Monday, 283 occurred in the past 48 hours and 146 in the past week. The remaining 138 deaths are from the period before last week.

Thane rural areas reported 56 deaths on Monday. Ahmednagar district reported 48 deaths followed by Satara district with 47 deaths. Kolhapur district recorded 31 fatalities, while Solapur district reported 29 deaths.

As the number of cases is showing signs of stabilising in urban areas, the tier two cities, mainly rural areas, continue to report cases burdening its health infrastructure. On Monday, Ahmednagar district reported 2,002 fresh cases, while Nashik district saw 3,673 new cases. Satara added 2,429 fresh cases, while Kolhapur and Sangli rural areas reported 1,402 and 1,157 fresh cases, respectively.

Jalna and Parbhani districts added 880 and 868 fresh cases. Beed district saw 1,262 new cases, Yavatmal added 1,383 new cases, Buldhana added 1,409 cases. Wardha, Bhandara, Gondia and Chandrapur added 545, 551, 228, and 832 cases, respectively.

Chandrapur has an active case count of 27,640, while Bhandara has 10,235 active cases. Buldhana has 11,884 active cases. Latur and Beed districts have active case count of 12,365 and 12,657, respectively.