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Maharashtra records highest one-day spike in Covid-19 cases
Maharashtra took 30 days to register the first 1,000 cases on April 7. It crossed the 2,000 mark in six days, took another three days to reach 3,000 and a further three days to touch 4,000 cases.
Maharashtra recorded the highest single-day increase in the number of Covid-19 cases with 811 infections and 22 people succumbing to the disease on Saturday but officials in the state worst hit by the contagion took heart in a dipping mortality rate and stricter containment measures.
The state now has 7,628 cases and 323 deaths. Of this, nearly two-thirds are in the capital Mumbai, which shot past the 5,000 case mark with 602 new infections on Saturday. The city has 5,049 cases and 191 deaths.
Maharashtra took 30 days to register the first 1,000 cases on April 7. It crossed the 2,000 mark in six days, took another three days to reach 3,000 and a further three days to touch 4,000 cases. From thereon, the state recorded 1,000 cases every two days.
But officials insisted that the government’s containment measures are working and underlined a drop in the mortality rate of around four percentage points over the past two days. The government also decided to not allow any non-essential shops to open despite a federal directive permitting their operation.
Dr Avinash Supe, head of a committee appointed to advise the state government on management protocol for serious Covid-19 patients, said that the mortality rate has dropped satisfactorily, but the graph of fresh cases would have to be observed for the next two weeks.
“The doubling rate has reduced to over seven days, when many other countries are still lingering at 3.5. Similarly, our mortality rate has dropped to 4.4% from 8% in the state and 4% in Mumbai. If we maintain this trend of doubling it would help us in containing the spread,” he said. Supe added that unless the trend of cases was reviewed for at least two weeks, it would be difficult to comment about the curve.
Dr Sadhana Tayade, DESIGNATION of Directorate of Health Services, said that the mortality rate was expected to fall further in Maharashtra. “We have been strictly monitoring the containment zones and have been following protocols strictly. There is the central government’s prediction of rise in cases by May-end and we are prepared for it. The rise is also because of the rise in testing,” she said.
Maharashtra currently has 555 containment zones, of which 987 are in Mumbai.
State health minister Rajesh Tope said the World Health Organization (WHO) and central government were continuously reviewing the situation in the state. “We have been concentrating on slums and congested areas than buildings and individual apartments. As directed by the central teams that visited Mumbai and Pune, we are concentrating on containment in areas like Dharavi and the hygiene in these areas,” he said .
Tope said that though the federal protocol mandated testing of people with symptoms, the state government was testing of asymptomatic contacts too. “We have been aggressively doing testing and quarantining contacts of patients. Now, the relatives of patients in areas like Dharavi will be administered with hydroxychloroquine,” he said.
The health minister, however, clarified that the state government was unlikely to extend relaxations to non-essential shops. A senior state government official said chief minister Uddhav Thackeray felt that lifting of restrictions might further jeopardise social distancing and lead to rise in cases. “Even if we extend the relaxation and allow stand-alone shops to operate, the police and revenue machinery will be engaged in implementing lockdown orders to a great extent. Secondly, shortfall of raw material and manpower will continue to persist until the lockdown is not lifted completely.
