Maharashtra sees slight dip in cases, positivity rate up

Maharashtra witnessed a drop in the Covid-19 cases on Sunday to 56,647 from over 60,000 cases in the preceding six days

Maharashtra witnessed a drop in the Covid-19 cases on Sunday to 56,647 from over 60,000 cases in the preceding six days. The state reported a further drop in weekly cases, establishing the government’s claim of stabilisation of the cases. The state tally stands at 4,722,401 and the death toll at 70,284 after the addition of 669 fresh deaths.

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The curve of the Covid-19 cases in the state appears to be stabilising as the daily average of cases dropped to 61,053 in the last one week from April 26 to May 2 by reporting 427,374 new cases.

The previous week, April 19-April 25, reported a total of 460,689 new Covid-19 cases with a daily average of 65,812 cases per day.

According to the state authorities, the lowering of figures has helped in reducing the load on the health infrastructure like hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, ventilators as well as various medicines which were scarce for the last couple of week.

Dr Tatyarao Lahane, director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) said that cases have come down this week. “We have seen the new cases stabilising in 19 districts across the state. The numbers will come down further in the next 15 days. The stabilisation will be replicated across the other districts too in the coming days,” he added.

“This trend has reduced the load on our medical infrastructure also. There is no problem now with the oxygen supply and people are the hospital beds are available to patients,” said Lahane.

In the last few weeks, due to a surge in Covid-19 cases and the number of deaths was due to a shortage of beds, oxygen cylinders and ventilators as well as medicines like Remdesivir.

State authorities have projected that as many as 28 districts will fall short of the required isolation beds, 25 in oxygen beds, 18 in intensive care units (ICU) beds by May 11 if the number of active cases rose as per the prediction. As many as 13 districts will face shortage of ventilators if the active cases rose.

Meanwhile, Mumbai on Sunday reported 3,629 new Covid-19 cases, and 79 deaths, taking the tally to 655,997, and the toll to 13,294. There are 61,436 active Covid-19 cases in the city.

In the last 24 hours, Mumbai has conducted 28,636 tests. The daily positivity rate for Sunday is 12.67%. So far, Mumbai has conducted 5,490,241 tests, with an average positivity rate of 11.9%.

On Sunday, 5,542 Covid patients recovered and were discharged. The present recovery rate is 89%. Mumbai’s doubling rate has now increased to 103 days, from as low as 45 days reported in the first two weeks of April. The overall growth rate of Covid-19 cases in the city is 0.66%.

Dr Amin Kaba, who is associated with several hospitals, said, “In urban pockets, we have sufficient infrastructure, but this is not the case with rural areas where even basic medical care is very hard to find.” He said there is an acute shortage of medical professionals which has contributed to the rise. “We have noticed that by the time the patient is shifted to a far-flung urban centre, he has lost precious time. This needs to be rectified,” said Kaba.

The state has currently 6,68,353 active Covid-19 patients in which Pune leads the tally with 1,09,254 cases followed by 72,503 cases. Similarly, the state has recorded 70,284 deaths of which 13,294 deaths followed by 9,709 in Pune.

There were 2,57,470 tests conducted in the last 24 hours in the state with a positivity rate of 22%. Pune city recorded 4,194 new cases while other cities like Nashik and Nagpur saw 1,879 and 2,859 new cases respectively. The state also saw 51,356 patients who were discharged from Covid-19 on Sunday.