Coronavirus cases dip, but deaths rise as Maharashtra plans lockdown exit strategy
Maharashtra has witnessed a dip in number of Covid-19 cases over the past two days, with the state adding 2,091 cases on Tuesday to take its tally to 54,758. The state had recorded a single-day high of 3,041 cases on Sunday, but the number came down to 2,436 on Monday. However, there were 97 coronavirus-related fatalities on Tuesday, the highest in a day, pushing up the state’s toll to 1,792.
Mumbai, the country’s worst-hit city, too, recorded 1,002 cases on Tuesday. The city’s virus tally has touched 32,974. There have been 1,065 fatalities in Mumbai.
The state government, meanwhile, announced it was chalking out a strategy to exit the lockdown. Chief secretary Ajoy Mehta said on Tuesday that while the state expects cases to surge after lockdown curbs are lifted, the government is planning “graded relaxations”. “There will be a surge in positive cases after relaxations are given. We are planning to ease out the restrictions in phases and a calibrated manner to avoid a sudden surge. The lifting of curbs will be announced in stages. Health infrastructure is being ramped up to ensure that cases can be handled effectively,” said Mehta.
“The lifting of the lockdown policy has been well thought through… The relaxations will be announced in advance to avoid panic,” said Mehta, hinting that the state may not see all lockdown curbs being lifted after May 31.
Mehta said relaxations in municipal corporations like Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon and Amravati were not given in the fourth phase although they had less number of cases because the health infrastructure there was not enough to handle the surge after relaxations. “Ninety-five per cent of cases are in 25 municipal corporations and while restructuring red zones for the fourth phase of the lockdown, we narrowed down these areas to ensure that limited geographical area was under curbs,” he said.
The month of May saw 44,260 cases and 1,333 deaths in Maharashtra. These included 25,913 cases and 775 deaths in Mumbai. This effectively means 80.83% cases and 74.39% deaths in the state have been recorded in the past 26 days. The first case of Covid-19 in the state was reported on March 9. After having crossed 25,000 cases on May 13, the next 5,000 cases in the state were reported in just three days. The 40,000-mark was breached on May 21, in just five days, and another 5,000 were added in just two days. The 50,000-mark was crossed on May 24, in just a day. On May 9, the state tally had touched 20,220. The state took 53 days for its first 10,000 cases.
Mehta, meanwhile, said the mortality rate in the state has significantly dropped over the past two months owing to the steps taken by the government. “It has come down to 3.2% on May 25 from 7.6% in mid-April. We want to take it down to 3%, to match the national average. This has been possible owing to the task force of 11 doctors we constituted for the clinical management of critically-ill patients. Similarly, the doubling rate of positive patients has gone up to 14 days from five days on March 25, when the lockdown was announced,” he said.
