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Maha tally crosses 200k after biggest spike
Mumbai
Mumbai
Maharashtra’s coronavirus disease (Covid-19) case count rose to 2,00,064 on Saturday, with the biggest single-day increase of 7,074, even as the death toll in the state due to the outbreak climbed to 8,671, according to official data.
The number of those who have recovered from the infectious disease in the state rose to 1,08,082, taking the recovery rate to 54.02%. There are 83,295 active cases in the state.
Of the 295 deaths added on Saturday, 124 occurred in the last 48 hours – 68 of them in Mumbai. Of remaining deaths, 163 deaths in Thane district took place over the last three months but were recorded as Covid-19 fatalities only on Saturday.
Mumbai recorded 1,163 new cases, taking the tally in the financial hub to 83,237.
Amit Deshmukh, Maharashtra’s medical education minister, said that the state health infrastructure was ready to tackle the rising of cases. “With antigen, antibody tests taken to every district and plasma banks being set up across the state, the virus spread is expected to be contained in next one month. We have augmented the health infrastructure across the state and are ready to take on the spread. The rise in the cases is because of the opening up of the activities and compromised social distancing norms. There is rise in numbers of few districts besides Mumbai Metropolitan Region, but we are taking care to reduce the spread. We have set up task force in every district and expert advice by epidemiologists and virologists is being made available to the rural patients with co-morbidities,” he said.
He said that July and August are crucial months and the government expects a decline in the cases to begin in a month. “We have already witnessed decline in the cases in Mumbai. Similar will be the trend in other parts and there will be flattening in the next two months,” he said.
Dr Om Shrivastava, infectious diseases specialist and member of the 11-member task force appointed by the state government for the clinical management of critically ill patients, said: “The rise in the number of cases is the result of the aggressive testing by the authorities. Same is the reason for the positivity rate… The virus spread is expected to stabilise now in the next few weeks and we should not worry about the rising cases since our infrastructure is ready to take up the load.”
Public health consultant Dr Sanjay Pattiwar said that the future pattern of the curve was very difficult to predict. “We should not be worried about the rising numbers if we are ready with health infrastructure. State authorities should go for aggressive testing and tracing, besides sensitising people about following social curbs and personal-community hygiene. We should learn to live with the virus at least for the next few months; it’s the only way out,” he said.
