Maharashtra sees over 6,000 Covid-19 cases for second day in a row

Maharashtra on Saturday reported more than 6,000 new Covid-19 infections for a second day in a row, pushing the count to 2,093,913. The number of active cases stood at 48,439, following 2,567 recoveries in the past 24 hours.

Maharashtra on Saturday reported more than 6,000 new Covid-19 infections for a second day in a row, pushing the count to 2,093,913. The number of active cases stood at 48,439, following 2,567 recoveries in the past 24 hours.

(Satish Bate/HT Photo)

India’s worst-hit state’s death toll reached 51,753 after 40 more casualties were reported, of which 13 were in the past 48 hours and 12 were in the last week. The other 15 deaths were from the period before last week, officials said.

With the steady, yet alarming spike in infections, the state government has directed local authorities to take all preventive measures to arrest the virus’ spread, which includes bringing back lockdown restrictions. However, the state government is yet to call it a ‘second wave”, saying that it is too early to reach such a conclusion.

From Saturday night, weekend curfews have been imposed in districts such as Amravati and Akola, whereas in Yavatmal, a 10-day curfew has already been imposed from February 18, restricting a gathering of five or more people at a place. Schools and colleges in Wardha have been ordered to remain closed until further notice.

On Saturday, 1,607 cases were recorded in these four districts, of which, Amravati (both city and district) reported the highest number — 1,055. Akola saw 348 cases, Wardha 112 and Yavatmal 92. It means over 25% of the day’s caseload was from these four districts, which are in Vidarbha region. The region has reported 41% (2,609) of Saturday’s cases.

The rise in daily cases can be gauged from this statistic: In the first 10 days of this month(February 1 to 10), 25,854 cases were reported, but in the past ten days (February 11 to 20), a total of 44,305 cases have been reported, which is a rise of 58% (18,451 infections).

A comparison with last month’s figures showed a rise in cases as well.

As of February 20, a total of 70,159 cases have been reported in the state, while in January 63,770 infections were reported in the corresponding period, according to official figures.

Dr Archana Patil, director, directorate of health services (DHS), said they were focusing on improving the existing health infrastructure to deal with any situation, considering the spurt in cases along with bringing restrictions, wherever required. “It would be early to use the term ‘second wave’ as the growth in cases is not exponential and limited to certain areas. We still have to wait for some time to assess and analyse the rise,” Dr Patil said.

“Moreover, we are focusing on improving the health infrastructure to be prepared in case of further increase in cases. We are increasing the number of beds, oxygen supplies, ICU beds, medicine supplies etc. to deal with any situation. We are also in the process of increasing Covid Care Centres (CCC), Dedicated Covid Health Centers (DCHC) and Dedicated Covid Hospitals (DCH) for management of patients. CCC, DCHC and DCH were reduced as the number of cases had gone down too low,” she stressed.

The state had decided to start CCC for all asymptomatic positive patients without comorbidity, DCHC for patients with mild symptoms and DCH for serious patients.

Amid the rise in cases, the district administrations in Nagpur, Buldhana, Parbhani and Jalna have also 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 from Wednesday.

A few more districts are likely to impose similar restrictions to contain the spread, the officials said. “The state is imposing these measures in targeted areas where the virulence of the virus is more and some more districts may follow them as chief minister Uddhav Thackeray directed the local bodies to take all the necessary steps to break the chain,” said a senior official, privy to the development.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra covered 897,413 beneficiaries through its vaccination drive after 37,030 people were inoculated on Saturday.

Of them, 24,534 were given the first shot of vaccine, while 12,416 were administered second shots, who have completed a mandatory gap of 28 days. Starting from January 16, the state has covered the first shots of 608,829 health workers (HCWs) and second shots of 40,241 HCWs.

Similarly, it has completed the first shots of 248,343 frontline workers (FLWs) till date, according to a release issued by the state health department on Saturday.

Maharashtra has around 800,000 HCWs and 580,000 FLWs registered on the centralised CoWIN app.

The third phase of the drive is likely to be started next month, the officials said. “The decision for starting the third phase has to come from the Centre. We were informed that it would start from March. We were also asked to complete the first shot of healthcare workers by February 20 and frontline workers till February 28,” he said, wishing not to be named.