Maharashtra sees 60,000 new Covid-19 cases

After the drop in cases on Monday, the state reported its second-highest single day spike on Tuesday, with the addition of 60,212 new cases, taking the tally to 3,519,208 and toll to 58,526, after the addition of 281 deaths

After the drop in cases on Monday, the state reported its second-highest single day spike on Tuesday, with the addition of 60,212 new cases, taking the tally to 3,519,208 and toll to 58,526, after the addition of 281 deaths.

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Mumbai saw a drop in cases, comparing the surge it saw from April 1 to 11. With the addition of 7,873 cases and 27 deaths in 24 hours, the city tally touched 53,5264 and the toll 12,093. Following Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Nashik cities reported 5,214, 5,084 and 2,659 cases, respectively. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region, which comprises nine cities and rural parts of three districts, reported 16,596 cases on Tuesday. The region reported an addition of 46 deaths. Nagpur, Pune and Nashik districts reported 30, 17 and 16 deaths, respectively.

The number of active cases rose to 593,042, resulting in the drop in the recovery rate to 81.44%. Pune has the highest (118,168) active patients, followed by in Mumbai (86,098) and Thane (81,303).

The state has 3,294,398 citizens in home quarantine and 30,399 in institutional quarantine.

Maharashtra has administered 10,752,969 doses on Tuesday, including 217,568 doses administered on Tuesday. The rate of the vaccination dropped on Tuesday because of public holiday and festival. The state had inoculated 329,112 beneficiaries on April 12, 223,716 on April 11 and 282,984 on April 10, according to the central government’s dashboard.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has said Maharashtra has been given around 1.6 million doses over last four days, taking the tally to 12,762,470, of which 1,830,809 were remaining with the state till Tuesday morning. The party said Maharashtra will get more stock on April 15 as announced earlier.

BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said the state government needs to ramp up the speed of vaccination for the second dose too. “The health care and fronline workers too have not been covered 100% with their first dose and the percentage hovers around 80%. About 40% of them have taken their second dose. There is no shortage of vaccine. We need proper planning to speed up vaccination,” he said.

State authorities expect the arrest of the spike in the Covid-19 cases over the next few days owing to the measures.

Dr Avinash Supe, head of state-appointed death audit committee, said they expect the peak by the end of the month. “We were expecting the peak by April 15, but it is now likely to take a couple of more weeks. After a plateau for 10 days we can expect the downward trend thereafter. We had reported a peak in May-June and then in September-October in 2020. The surge started in February end, which can be see peak by April end,” he said.

Dr Ravi Wankhedkar, former national president of Indian Medical Association, said rapid vaccination could help the state in reducing the spread.