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Covid-19: Highest single-day spike in cases in Maharastra since Sept
State government begins measures to contain the spread of the virus as Maharashtra witnesses a second wave; Tuesday saw the highest single-day spike in 167 days with 17,864 fresh cases
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Days after the Central team’s visit to six Maharashtra districts, the state government admitted that it is witnessing a second wave of Covid-19 infections and has begun taking measures to contain the spread of the virus.
Tuesday saw the state’s highest single-day spike in 167 days with 17,864 fresh cases (18,317 cases were logged on September 30). The state saw the peak of the first wave on September 17 last year with 24,619 cases. The daily caseload in the state dropped to fewer than 2,000 cases in the first week of February.
As of March 15, 65.72% of the day’s cases (9,893 of 15,051) and 65.64% of the active cases (85,696 out of 130,547) were from eight districts — Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Mumbai, Nashik, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar, and Aurangabad — which are being closely monitored.
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On Tuesday, the state also reported 87 deaths, taking the toll to 52,996. The state’s tally stands at 2,347,328 with 138,812 active cases. The case fatality rate (CFR) of the state stands at 2.49% and the recovery rate at 95.66%.
A team of three senior officers attached to central institutions from the public health sector visited Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivli, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon and Aurangabad between March 7 and 12. The Central team said it was the beginning of the second wave in Maharashtra. In a letter by Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan to Maharashtra chief secretary Sitaram Kunte, the Centre pointed at limited contact tracing, poor rate of institutional isolation, and fewer tests.
It also asked the state to ramp up its health infrastructure, earmark the most infected areas as containment zones and chalk out a strategy for the better clinical management of patients.
