Maha cases cross 27k in highest 1-day spike

Mumbai Maharashtra recorded 1,602 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the state’s highest one-day spike for a second consecutive day, according to official figures

Mumbai Maharashtra recorded 1,602 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the state’s highest one-day spike for a second consecutive day, according to official figures released by the government. With the latest increase, the state’s case tally has crossed the 27,000 mark within 14 of going past 10,000 on April 30.

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Maharasthra’s case count stands at 27,524. Of these, 20,441 are active cases, state health officials said. On Wednesday, the state recorded 1,495 cases, the highest in a single day until then.

The death toll in the state crossed the 1,000 mark as 44 fatalities were recorded on Thursday. Of those, 25 were in Mumbai, 10 in Navi Mumbai, five in Pune, two in Aurangabad and one each in Panvel and Kalyan. Of the 44 deaths, 34 patients had co-morbidity conditions, said the officials cited above.

Mumbai, the worst-hit city in the country, also recorded its highest one-day spike with 991 cases. It crossed the 16,000 mark and the total case count in the city stands at 16,738. On Sunday, the city recorded 875 cases, which was the highest in a day till then.

The death toll of Mumbai breached the 600 mark with 25 fatalities on Thursday. The toll now stands at 621. Officials said this could not be termed as exponential growth and the state had also not reached the community transmission stage.

As the Centre is planning more relaxations after May 17, the number of fresh cases is rising rapidly in Maharashtra. For more than a week (from May 6), the state has been getting over 1,000 cases on a daily basis and by the end of this phase of the lockdown (May 17), it is likely to breach the 30,000 mark. In May (14 days) alone, the state has reported as many as 17,026 cases.

On May 6, fresh daily cases stood at 1,233, on May 7 at 1,216 cases, on May 8 at 1,089, on May 9 at 1,165, on May 10 at 1,278, on May 11 at 1,230, on May 12 at 1,026 and on May 13 at 1,495. Besides, on May 10, the state also declared 665 cases separately saying that they were registered in the previous few days and were being declared as per the central government’s directive to bring the data on a par with the national figures on the ICMR website.

Between April 19 and 30, the state was getting around 500 new cases on a daily basis

Dr Tatyarao Lahane, director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), said, “The numbers are rising but it cannot be called exponential growth as in that case the number multiplies on daily cases. If the number of fresh cases becomes double on a daily basis only then can it be called exponential growth.”

“The state has also not reached community transmission stage as it comes with exponential growth only,” he added.

The first positive case was found on March 9 and it took 30 days for the state to cross the 1,000 mark.

As cases are rising, the number of people to have recovered so far rose to 6,059 as 512 positive patients recovered on Thursday.

The doubling rate in the state stands at 10 days. The state government has decided to take the rate to 20 days in the days to come, said health minister Rajesh Tope. The government has resolved to bring the entire state in a green zone by this month’s end.

So far, 15,465 people have been kept in institutional quarantine in the state and over 315,686 people have been put under home isolation.

The state currently has 1,512 active containment zones. Around 14,253 survey teams comprising doctors and assisting staff have screened more than 5.9 million people.