100 deaths reported for third consecutive day in Maharashtra; Covid-19 toll rises to 47,599

Mumbai, meanwhile, reported 813 new Covid-19 cases and 14 deaths, taking the city’s tally and toll to 284,509 and 10,945.

Maharashtra reported more than 100 deaths for the third consecutive day as the state’s Covid-19 toll rose to 47,599 on Friday with an addition of 127 fatalities. However, of the 127 deaths, 57 were from the past 48 hours, 27 from the past week and 43 were from the period before last week. The state also recorded 5,229 new cases to take its infection tally to 1,842,587.

Healthcare workers during a screening at a bank in Andheri (W) on Friday. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

Mumbai, meanwhile, reported 813 new Covid-19 cases and 14 deaths, taking the city’s tally and toll to 284,509 and 10,945.

With the daily caseload “under control” in the state, authorities have now decided to focus on districts with high number of cases and positivity rate.

“Districts with high positivity and fatality rates have been directed to go for more testing and aggressive contact tracing to keep the spread in control. Although the daily caseload hasn’t risen drastically, it can still gradually increase from the last week of December. As projected and conveyed to local authorities, we have to be prepared for the second wave, or another peak, in January or February. The districts that have poor health infrastructure have been directed to ramp it up,” said a health department official, on condition of anonymity.

In the past 10 days, the state has reported an average of 5,279 infections daily, contrary to the projection of a surge in cases after Diwali. The weekly growth rate, too, has dropped to 0.31%; doubling period has risen to 225 days; and case fatality rate (CFR) has fallen to 2.58% as on December 1, according to the state health department presentation made before the cabinet. Weekly CFR has also fallen to 1.44% between November 25 and December 1 from 3.72%, highest in the recent past, between November 4 and 10.

The state’s per million cases, however, are still high in Pune, Thane, Nagpur, Mumbai and Raigad. In Pune district, they are 30,852, followed by 21,952 in Mumbai. As many as 17 districts in the state have CFR more than the state’s 2.58%, with highest being in Mumbai (3.83%), followed by Akola (3.68%) and Parbhani (3.57%). In districts like Nashik, Gondia, Ratnagiri and Palghar, the weekly positivity rate is more than 10%, against state’s weekly positivity rate of 7.57%.

Dr Avinash Bhondve, Maharashtra president, Indian Medical Association, said the state machinery is lagging in contact tracing and daily testing. “As per what we have gathered from patients at clinics, the state machinery has not been able to trace contacts of infected patients. The number of tests, too, should increase, if the state really wants to restrict the spread. Government has been talking about tracking the super-spreaders, but on the ground, no such drive exists. On the other hand, people, too, are not following Covid-appropriate behaviour by maintaining social distancing and wearing masks at public places,” he said.