Maharashtra sees biggest 1-day Covid case spike in 70 days; curbs slapped in 7 districts

Maharashtra on Wednesday reported 4,787 new Covid-19 cases (second 4,000-plus spike in the past four days) and 40 deaths, taking the tally to 2,076,092 and toll to 51,631.

After 21 of Maharashtra’s 36 districts reported a rise in active Covid-19 patients between February 9 and February 15, at least seven of them have imposed restrictions on the movement of people, while the state government has reiterated its warning of imposing a lockdown if the case curve keeps moving northward. Experts have also attributed the spike in cases to a drop in tests and poor contact-tracing in districts where cases are on the rise.

(PRATIK CHORGE/HT)

Maharashtra on Wednesday reported 4,787 new Covid-19 cases (second 4,000-plus spike in the past four days) and 40 deaths, taking the tally to 2,076,092 and toll to 51,631.

More importantly, Wednesday’s spike in infections is Maharashtra’s highest in the past 70 days. The state had earlier clocked 4,981 cases on December 9.

Amid the rise in cases, the district administrations in Amravati, Nagpur, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Akola, Parbhani and Jalna have either restricted gatherings to less than five people or have started to strictly implement the standing government standard operating procedure (SOP) that was meant to facilitate unlocking.

The district administrations are also fining people heavily for not following SMS (social distancing, masking and sanitising) protocol, besides keeping schools and colleges shut for at least another two weeks.

In a video conference with the district collectors and municipal commissioners, Dr Pradeep Vyas, principal secretary, public health department, had directed to ramp up contact-tracing in the ratio of 1:20. “Aggressive tracing and testing could help them in bringing the positivity rate in control. They have been told to take help of revenue and police machinery to keep the crowding under control and for the awareness among people. The districts and corporations have also been directed to revive the containment zones and seal the affected areas,” an official from the department said.

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar reiterated the government’s stand and said if the people do not follow the protocol the government will be forced to impose lockdown. He also warned that the state will have to pay a heavy price if cases continued to rise. “In some cases, 5,000 to 10,000 invitees attend wedding ceremonies, people forget to wear masks and maintain social distancing. In local trains in Mumbai, too, we have been witnessing heavy crowding. The positivity rate in some of the districts is high. We will have no option, but to impose the lockdown if this continues,” he said.

The daily caseload in districts like Pune (864), Nashik (114), Nagpur (512), Amravati (625) continued to be on the rise. Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) reported 1,237 cases on Wednesday with the highest contribution from Thane (113) and Kalyan-Dombivli (131) after Mumbai.

In the past week (February 9-15), as many as 21 districts have witnessed a rise in active cases, while the weekly positivity rate in few districts such as Amravati (24.79%), Akola(20.94%), Nashik (16.31%) has been much above the state rate. The state administration has expressed concerns over the poor contact tracing and testing. In districts with high positivity rate, the per million test rate isreported to be poor. Buldhana (568), Dhule (568), Nanded (670) were among the top districts with low rate of per million testing.

Dropped testing and poor tracking is also one of the reasons for the rise in the cases and positivity rate, according to public health experts. The daily testing in the state dropped to 48,705 in past 16 days in February, against the daily average of 60,308 tests in January. Against the protocol of tracing of 20 contacts per positive patients, many districts saw it much below the parameter. “With the drop in the cases over last three months, the district authorities had stopped taking it seriously, clinically and administratively. The spike in the cases is also because of it,” said the official from the health department.

“There should be strict tracking and testing across the state. It is true that the administrations in some areas have lowered their guard in term of tracking and testing, but they should immediately take corrective measures,” said Dr Gautam Bhansali, consultant physician, Bombay Hospital.

Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer, said, “We have been conducting about 60,000 tests per day. But the tests in the districts and areas with the rise in cases and positivity, the testing has been increased. The district administrations have been directed to go for aggressive contact tracing and testing.”

Dr Awate said the cold wave witnessed in parts of the state, recently held gram panchayat elections in over 14,000 panchayats, crowd at the wedding ceremonies and public gatherings are mainly the reasons for spike in cases. “We have been concentrating on the districts with high number of cases and the positivity rate. Our state level teams of experts visited these districts to take a review and guide local administration,” he said.

Meanwhile, the turnout for the vaccination with the first dose to healthcare and frontline workers continued to remain low. 7959 HCWs and 21,112 FLWs took their first shot, while 7065 HCWs turned up for their second dose of vaccine. Of the 1,054,822 registered HCWs, 575,046 have taken their first dose and 16,181 the second dose of vaccine. 186,279 FLWs of the total 5,94,471 enrolled on CoWIN app have taken their first dose after vaccination for them began from February 03.