Maharashtra recorded 1230 new cases on Monday, a four-digit increase in Covid-19 cases for the sixth day in a row. With this, the state has also crossed the 23,000-mark within eleven days after it crossed 10,000 cases on April 30. The state’s case count has now jumped to 23,401.
The death toll of the state also touched 868 as 36 deaths were recorded on Monday. Of them, 20 are in Mumbai, Solapur 5, Pune 3, Thane 2 and one each in Ratnagiri, Amravati, Nanded, Aurangabad and Wardha. In addition, one patient from Uttar Pradesh also died in Mumbai on Monday.
Of the total number of deaths, 27 patients had co-morbidity conditions, health officials said.
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In Mumbai, the worst-hit city in the country, the Covid-19 case count crossed the 14,000 mark as 782 cases were registered in a day, the second highest so far. Mumbai’s case count is now at 14,521. On Sunday, 875 cases were recorded. The death toll in Mumbai also reached 528.
The rise in the number of cases is higher this month as compared to the fresh cases that were reported last month. The new cases that were in three digits till April end have turned into four digits since the last five days.
{{/usCountry}}The rise in the number of cases is higher this month as compared to the fresh cases that were reported last month. The new cases that were in three digits till April end have turned into four digits since the last five days.
{{/usCountry}}On May 6, the daily cases rose to 1233, May 7 - 1216 cases, May 8 - 1089, May 9 - 1165 and on May 10 -- 1278 cases were reported. Besides, on May 10, the state also declared 665 cases respectively saying that they were registered in the last few days and are being declared as per the central government’s directive to bring the data at par with the national figures on the ICMR website.
Between April 19 and 30, the state was reporting around 500 new cases on a daily basis but from May 1, the figures started showing a significant rise.
In the last eleven days since May 1, the state has reported as many as 12,903 cases, whereas the total number of cases registered in April was 10,201.
The officials indicated a further rise in cases and said that the curve will be flattened only after May 17 when the state would be completing the fourth incubation period. They are expecting a decline in cases from this month end.
Dr Tatyarao Lahane, Director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) said, “The containment areas have thick population and is likely to affect a large number of people for various reasons. So the number of new cases is likely to increase for a few more days till May 17. After this, the curve will flatten as by then we will be completing the fourth incubation period and the number of fresh cases will start coming down by this month end.”
“By next month, we are expecting that things will be completely under control,” he added.
The first Covid-19 positive case was found on March 9 and it took 30 days for the state to cross the 1000 mark.
So far, 15,192 people have been kept in institutional quarantine in the state and over 2,48,301 people have been put under home quarantine.
On Monday, the state also completed 49 days of lockdown that was imposed on midnight of March 23, a day before the nationwide lockdown was imposed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was partially lifted on April 20 in the areas where there are no cases or minimal in number.
On Monday, the health department also declared that it had conducted 2,18,914 tests at various public and private facilities across Maharashtra. Of them 1,93,457 people tested negative.
This is 19,852 less than what was declared on Sunday when the state declared it had tested 2,38,766 samples. It has clarified that they have declared figures following ICMR’s website.
“Today, the state government has quoted sample testing figures posted on the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) website and that’s the reason there is disparity in figures compared to Sunday’s figures. It may have happened that many laboratories have not updated their figures on the ICMR website. We will ask them to do that and so the differences in the number of sample testing will be removed,” Dr Archana Patil, Director, directorate of state health services said.
Maharashtra currently has 1256 active containment zones. Around 12,027 survey teams comprising doctors and assisting staff have screened more than 53.71 lakh people for the coronavirus infection.
With the rising number of cases, the number of patients who have recovered so far also jumped to 3301 as 207 positive patients recovered on Thursday.
The doubling rate in the state now stands at 10 days. The state government has decided to take the rate to 20 days in the days to come, health minister Rajesh Tope said. The state government has also resolved to bring the entire state into the green zone by this month end.
The state government has recently changed the top brass of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as the situation in Mumbai has gone from bad to worse. It has transferred civic body chief Praveen Pardeshi and appointed IS Chahal as the new BMC commissioner. The government has also appointed Sanjeev Jaiswal and Ashwini Bhide as additional municipal commissioners replacing AB Jarhad and Jayshree Bhoj.