Maha Covid-19 toll goes past 9,000; tally now 211,987

Maharashtra on Monday breached the 9,000-mark in Covid-19 fatalities with 204 more deaths, taking the toll to 9,026. The state’s case fatality rate (CFR) is 4.26%.

Maharashtra on Monday breached the 9,000-mark in Covid-19 fatalities with 204 more deaths, taking the toll to 9,026. The state’s case fatality rate (CFR) is 4.26%. The state recorded 5,368 fresh Covid-19 cases — lowest single-day figure since June 30 — taking the tally to 211,987. Mumbai is inching closer to the grim mark of 5,000 fatalities as it recorded 39 new deaths, taking the toll to 4,938. Mumbai recorded 1,200 new Covid-19 infections, pushing its tally to 85,724. There are 87,681 active cases in the state and 23,624 in Mumbai.

HT Image

After an upward trend in the daily cases reported, the state saw a relatively lower increase on Monday. The state recorded 5,537 cases on July 1, 6,330 on July 2, 6,364 on July 3, 7,074 on July 4 and 6,555 on July 5. However, state health department officials said that it is not a trend to consider yet as the incubation cycle in several areas is not completed and there would be an upswing in daily cases for a few more days.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) continued to contribute a chunk of the new infections with 2,169 cases or 40.41% of the state’s total cases were reported from the region, excluding Mumbai, on Monday. In the past 15 days, the region recorded 32,631 cases.

On Monday, Thane city and Thane district recorded 301 and 250 new cases respectively, while Kalyan-Dombivli recorded 454 Covid-19 infections.

The total cases in Thane city are 12,260 while it is 10,854 in Kalyan-Dombivli. Vasai-Virar reported 283 new infections, while adjoining Mira-Bhayander reported 123.

Besides Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane recorded 28 and 10 fatalities respectively, while Pune, Vasai Virar and Nashik city reported 13 deaths each on Monday. Jalgaon district reported 12 deaths on Monday.

“The daily rise in cases is lower on Monday. But it is hardly a trend unless it sustains for a longer period. The cases in MMR and few other regions are still increasing. We expect the cases to rise till this month-end before they start to plateau,” said a senior health department official. Besides MMR, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik, Jalgaon, Jalna and Aurangabad have also clocked several cases on Monday. Pune reported 520 cases, while Pimpri-Chinchwad reported 257 new cases. Jalgaon district reported 188 new cases. Aurangabad district and city reported 83 and 161 new cases, taking the total cases there to 6,782.

The local administration in Jalgaon, Jalna, and Aurangabad has announced a complete lockdown looking at the spike in cases in the past few days. In the wake of the rising cases, the district administration and municipal bodies are enforcing stringent lockdowns to manage patients and the burden on health infrastructure.

There would be a complete lockdown in Aurangabad city from July 10 to July 18 in the wake of rising number of coronavirus cases. This phase of the lockdown will be in force for nine days and only essential services will be allowed to operate during this period. Jalna district collector Ravindra Binwade has already announced a lockdown in the district from Monday till July 16, while a lockdown has been announced in Jalgaon from Tuesday.

State health commissioner Dr Anup Kumar Yadav said that the priority before the state government is to keep mortality in check. He said that the state had set up a task force with expert doctors to tend to critical patients. “We have changed clinical guidelines, have set up a task-force in every district where advice from expert doctors, epidemiologists and virologists are being made available to rural patients with comorbidities,” Yadav.

Yadav added that the state government is also procuring adequate quantities of drugs that could prove to be life-saving for patients in critical condition. Without divulging the quantity of remdesivir and other drugs, Yadav said, “We have some stock of these drugs, and we are also procuring more for every district.” He added that the state is also adding ventilators in districts and tier-two cities where the health infrastructure is weaker.

In a bid to give a boost to the reopening of businesses, the state government has decided to allow any private establishment seeking to reopen to get their staff tested for Covid-19. The state medical education and drugs department (MEDD) issued a government resolution (GR) on Monday stating that private establishment had repeatedly sought relaxations in getting their staffers tested before reopening their businesses.

According to the GR, minimum 50 people are required from an establishment for a group test. The head of the establishment must approach the district collector or municipal commissioner in urban areas to seek approval for the tests. They would have to mention the type of test they want to undergo, including RT-PCR, TrueNat, CBNAAT, antibody, or antigen test, in their application.

“It is a part of Mission Begin Again for establishments that want to reopen. The establishments can approach the district collector and get approval for tests, and say we have this private lab and we need permission to test our employees. We have allowed two things: all labs to conduct antigen and antibody tests so testing is ramped up,” said Sanjay Mukherjee, secretary, MEDD.

Meanwhile, the recovery rate in the state continued to remain over 54 % with 3,522 patients discharged on Monday. So far, 1,15,262 patients have been discharged after full recovery until today. The total number of active cases in the state stands at 87,681.

(with inputs from Eeshanpriya MS)