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Maharashtra sees 26,616 new Covid-19 cases; tally now 5,405,068
Maharashtra recorded 26,616 daily Covid-19 infections on Monday, pushing the tally to 5,405,068
Maharashtra recorded 26,616 daily Covid-19 infections on Monday, pushing the tally to 5,405,068. The active cases declined to 445,495 after 48,211 recoveries were reported in the past 24 hours.
The state saw 516 fatalities, taking the toll to 82,486. Kolhapur reported the highest toll on Monday with 101 deaths – (83 deaths in district and 18 in the city), followed by Solapur with 56 deaths (49 in district and seven in the city).
After three months of surge, the daily cases in Maharashtra have gradually started declining. It became possible, however, only after a complete lockdown was imposed across the state on April 22. The state is now looking for a decline of 50% in daily cases by the end of this month, officials said.
For the past four consecutive days, Maharashtra has been reporting less than 40,000 cases. On May 14, 15 and 16, it reported 39,923, 34,848 and 34,389, respectively. On April 18, the state saw the highest daily surge of 68,631cases which is also been seen as the peak of the start of the second wave. Till May 1, the tally of daily cases was more than 60,000 cases (63,282 cases).
The daily positivity rate of the state is also on decline as it was 15.91%, 14.68% and 12.99% on May 14, 15 and 16, respectively.
On May 14, the state conducted 250,784 tests, while on May 15 and 16, 237,264 and 264,587 were conducted. In the last 24 hours, the state tested 234,416 samples and had a positivity rate of 11.35%. However, the overall positivity rate of the state stood at 17.25%, according to the data issued by the state health department.
“Situation is coming under control as we can see decline in cases. Since last month, our daily average cases has seen a drop of 30% as it has been reduced to 40,000 from 65,000. As lockdown restrictions have been extended we are expecting that the daily cases will be reduced to less than 30,000 by the end of this month,” said Dr Tatyarao Lahane, director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER).
Maharashtra’s effective reproduction number (R) for Covid-19, which indicates how fast the infection is spreading, has also declined to 1.03 from 1.45 on April 30, according to an analysis prepared by the state health department.
For a pandemic to come to an end, the R value has to be sustained under 1. This infection rate was recorded 0.36 in February when the second wave hit the state. In March, it went up to 1.33.
However, districts such as Solapur, Pune, Ahmednagar, Nashik, Sangli, Kolhapur and Beed are still contributing a significant number of cases every day. On Friday, Solapur reported 2,679 cases, highest in the state. Pune recorded 2,262 cases, Ahmednagar 1,851 cases, Nashik 1788 cases, Sangli 1,689 cases, Kolhapur 1,335 cases and Beed 1,100 cases.
Mumbai also clocked 1,232 cases that took the tally to 689,062. It also reported 48 casualties taking the toll to 14,272.
“Peak in daily cases has come late in some of the districts which has impacted the overall figures of daily cases of the state. Once peak is over in the respective districts then the situation in the state will look much better,” said a senior health official, wishing not to be named.
