Maha Covid-19 tally crosses 2.75L, recoveries exceed 1.5L

With 7,975 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours — the second highest single-day rise —Maharashtra’s case tally crossed the 2.75 lakh mark to reach 275,640. On

With 7,975 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours — the second highest single-day rise —Maharashtra’s case tally crossed the 2.75 lakh mark to reach 275,640. On a positive note, the tally of recovered patients also crossed the 1.5 lakh mark with 3,606 more recoveries, taking the total to 152,613. The state’s recovery rate is 55.39%, less than the national rate of 63.24%. The state has 111,801 active cases, as of Wednesday.

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Also, health minister Rajesh Tope said the state has requested the Centre to include masks and sanitisers in the list of essential commodities, so as to cap their prices.

Mumbai retained its stable rate of rise in cases by reporting 1,374 new infections, which pushed Maharashtra’s worst-hit city’s tally towards the 1 lakh mark at 96,474, with 22,888 active cases. The past 24 hours also saw 233 new deaths across the state, taking the toll to 10,928.

Of the latest fatalities reported, 62 are in Mumbai, 31 in Pune city, 15 in Kalyan-Dombivli, 11 in Pimpri-Chinchwad and nine each in Navi Mumbai, Jalgaon city and Nashik city. The case fatality rate (CFR) of the state fell to 3.94% from 4.8% reported on June 16, 3.25% on May 25 and 3.37% on May 31. The national CFR is 2.60%. The CFR, too, has been on a decline as it dropped to 2.85% in the week’s average of July 9-15, from 3.21% during July 2-8, 3.51% in the week before that and 4.16% during June 17-24. The state saw 51, 916 cases and 1,480 fatalities in the past seven days with a daily average of 7,417 cases and 211 fatalities.

35,962 tests were conducted in more than 110 laboratories across the state in the last 24 hours, making the positivity rate 22.17%. The progressive positivity rate of the state is 19.56%, after the tally of tests stood at 14, 08,901. Of them 2,75640 people tested positive.

Although the daily number of new cases is rising in the state, the state share of cases in the country has dropped to 28.6% from over 30% last month. State authorities felt that compared to other states, Maharashtra has fared well in containing the spread. “With the concentrated efforts in the most affected cities, we can do better over the next few weeks. If the smaller towns and rural areas could control the spread effectively, the flattening of the curve could be achieved by the end of August,” said a state official.

Dr Avinash Supe, former KEM dean and member of the expert committee appointed by the state to recommend steps to curb the spread, said that the virus infection is expected to stabilise in August. “We have seen a major drop in cases in Mumbai as the weekly average of cases has dropped to 8,400 from more than 10,000 in May. There is inflow of the patients from other adjoining cities, which has also added to the number of cases in Mumbai. We can expect stabilisation of cases even in other cities in next few weeks and then a downward trend in August.”

Dr Supe said that the state government’s steps of making antiviral drugs like remdesivir, tocilizumab in the public hospitals are going to play a significant role in treatment and will help in bringing down the CFR.

Meanwhile, state health minister Rajesh Tope announced steps will be taken to cap the prices of the masks and sanitisers. Tope said that besides requesting the Centre to enlist masks and sanitisers as essential commodities to control prices, the state government has also constituted a committee to restrict their prices. “Central government has delisted these commodities from bringing them out of government control. In such a case, there will be no control on hoarding and selling prices of the masks and sanitisers. We are requesting the Centre to put them again in the list so that action can be taken by police or food and drugs administration. Without waiting for the Central government decision, we have constituted a committee and a cap on the prices will be imposed in a week’s time,” said Rajendra Shingne, minister, food and drugs administration.

Tope said masks and sanitisers are being sold at inflated prices. “When we are making them mandatory, the commodities should be affordable to the poor class too. Against their cost of production of ₹15-20, masks are being sold at prices ranging between ₹100 and ₹300. Once we receive the legal opinion and the report by the committee, the decision over capping of prices will be taken in next five to six days,” he said.