Covid-19 in Maharashtra: State to survey comorbid patients; tally 733,568

Maharashtra on Thursday recorded its second-highest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases with 14,718 infections, taking the count up to 733,568. Active cases also rose to 178,234, accounting for 24.29% of the total.

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The death toll of the state went up to 23,444 after 355 deaths were reported, of which, 236 were in the past 48 hours, another 83 deaths were from past one week, while the rest 36 were from the period before that, health officials said.

The recent rise in single-day toll numbers, including a record count of 422 on August 18, continues to pose a challenge for the state, which records the most fatalities in the country.

To improve the situation, the state government is now planning to conduct a statewide survey in all households to identify comorbid patients in each and every district and cities. The idea is early detection and treatment of the most vulnerable section of society, so as to help reduce Covid casualties. The plan was discussed in the cabinet meeting held on Wednesday. The state is likely to start the survey from September 15.

“Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray insisted that the state should take up a survey to identify comorbid patients. He was of the view that it will help us in close monitoring of these people, which will lead to early detection of Covid-19 and its treatment. It will further reduce number of Covid deaths in the state as well,” said a senior minister, wishing not to be named.

“We are planning a survey, which will be conducted across the state with the help of Asha workers and others. We are doing micro-detailing of the survey and looking to start it from September 15,” Rajesh Tope, state health minister, told HT.

“Ultimately, the purpose of conducting the survey is to reduce deaths as most of the people who have lost their lives due to Covid-19, of them, most were having co-morbidities. Early detection can save their lives,” he added.

In the last 27 days (in this month), the state has reported 8,450 deaths, which is highest in a month so far. In July, a total of 6,988 deaths were reported, while in June, May, April and March, total number of deaths recorded were 5,638, 2,286, 449 and 10 deaths respectively.

The case fatality rate (CFR) of the state was recorded as 3.2% on Thursday. It is slightly less than Gujarat, which has highest CFR in the country as present. On Wednesday, Gujarat’s CFR was 3.27% with 2,945 deaths (89,994 cases), according to statistics shared by the state medical education department.

“On an average, daily over 312 people are losing their lives in the state after getting infected with Covid-19. It is concerning that we could not control the deaths even after making so much of effort,” said a senior official from state health department.

Besides, the peak in cases is yet not flattening. In fact, number of fresh infections is rising continuously. On Wednesday, it recorded its sharpest single-day spike with 14,888 cases.

For the first time, the state has breached 3-lakh mark of Covid-19 cases in a month, owing to the surge. The total number of new cases reported in August till date is 311,750. With four more days to go, it is likely to rise even further as the daily cases are also going up. For comparison, the state has recorded 247,392 cases in July and 102,172 cases in June. In May, April and March, it had got 57,157, 10,196 and 302 cases respectively.

There was also a projection that daily cases will rise in August. The state has maintained that peak is arriving in different areas at a different time. Further, they are conducting more tests than ever, which led to a rise in daily infections. The state health minister has recently said they expect the downward trend of the Covid-19 infections after mid-September.

On Monday, Mumbai recorded 1,350 cases, taking its tally to 140,888. Of them, active cases are 19,463.

On June 27, Mumbai had reported its highest single-day spike of 2,077 cases. It has been maintaining a sort of stability in fresh cases in the past more than a month. City toll stands at 7,535 after 30 deaths reported on Thursday.

Pune city continued to contribute maximum infections in the daily caseload as it recorded 1,772 cases on Thursday. Its tally stood at 94,897 cases. Nagpur city has become the third-highest contributor in daily cases with 1,086. Its tally stood at 17,865.

Pimpri-Chinchwad, satellite city in Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR), recorded 1,085 cases, pushing its tally up to 44,092. Apart from them, Pune district, Nashik city, Jalgaon district and Satara district have recorded 819, 740, 603 and 532 cases respectively.

On Thursday, it has conducted 68,157 tests and total number of tests conducted till date are 3,862,184.

As many as 531,563 infected patients have recovered and been discharged from various hospitals across the state till date. On Thursday alone, 9,136 recoveries were reportedm taking the recovery rate of the state to 72.46%, against the national average of 76.24%.

Currently, 33,641 people have been kept at institutional quarantine facilities and 1,324,233 people have been home quarantined across the state.