Maharashtra past grim mark of 50K Covid-19 deaths

On Saturday, Maharashtra crossed the grim landmark of 50,000 Covid-19 deaths. After 308 days into the battle against Covid-19, the state has recorded the most number of fatalities in the country, and has the second-highest case fatality rate (CFR) after Punjab. However, for the past few months, Maharashtra has been recording fewer deaths as compared to the earlier months of the pandemic outbreak.

The first death in Maharashtra was reported last year on March 17, which was the third Covid-19 death in the country. Of the 150,798 Covid-related fatalities in India, one-third (33.17%) are from Maharashtra.

Meanwhile on Saturday, the state reported 3,581 Covid-19 infections, pushing the tally to 1,965,556. The active cases in the state now stand at 52,960. The toll has surged to 50,027 after 57 deaths were recorded on Saturday. After witnessing a decline, the state had seen a slight increase in the fatality figures in the past four days. Officials attributed the marginal surge in the fatalities to the delay in recording the deaths.

The total number of recovered patients in the state reached 1,861,400 after 2,401 people were discharged on Saturday. The recovery rate of the state stood at 94.7%. So far, the state has tested 13,338,488 samples and has an overall positivity rate of 14.74%. In the past 24 hours, the state tested 70,571 samples.

Mumbai reported 596 new cases and eight fatalities on Saturday, taking the city’s tally to 298,235 and toll to 11,181. The active cases in the city stood at 7,680.

Senior health department officials said the measures adopted by the administration to curb the absolute number of deaths in the state have been paying off since October. Officials said the death figures are on a decline each month from October.

In September, Maharashtra reported 12,079 deaths, when the state had hit the peak in terms of cases and deaths in a day. The following month, the state saw around 40% (7,249) decline in deaths. In November, the number of fatalities dropped further to 3,314, which was a 54% decline from October. In December, it recorded the least number of deaths since May with 2,370 fatalities.

“Various interventions, including strict treatment protocol, increased surveillance, tracing, awareness campaigns etc, over the months have resulted in the reduction in deaths. The CFR is still high at 2.55%, but that is due to the deaths reported in the earlier months of the outbreak. The situation is very much under control,” a health department official said.

Meanwhile in other parts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Thane city reported 130 new cases and five fatalities, followed by Navi Mumbai with 88 cases and two deaths. Overall, the region reported 548 cases and 10 deaths on Saturday.

Pune city recorded 298 new cases and one death on Saturday, while its rural areas reported 189 new cases and one death. Pimpri-Chinchwad reported 152 new cases and one death.

Aurangabad district reported 138 new cases, while Nashik district recorded 207 new cases and four deaths. At Nagpur, 365 new cases and two deaths were reported in Saturday, while its rural areas saw 54 fresh cases and one death.