Maha Covid tally crosses 700K; city sees 587 cases, lowest since May 12, due to tech glitch

Maharashtra on Tuesday went past 700,000 Covid-19 cases, 170 days after the first infection, with 10,425 more patients taking the tally to 703, 823. The latest 100,000 cases took only eight days. The state took 96 days for the first 100,000, 22 for the second, 14 for the third, 11 for the fourth, 10 for fifth and ninth for the tally to move from 500,000 to 600,000.

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Meanwhile, Mumbai, which was the country’s worst-hit city in the initial stage of the outbreak, has reported its lowest daily caseload after 105 days. The city reported 587 cases on Tuesday, taking its tally to 137,683. Mumbai had reported 426 cases on May 12. The fewer number of cases, however, is owing to the technical glitches it faced with the ICMR website, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has clarified. The city has, however, witnessed a fall in fatalities over the past four days, as it reported 121 deaths at a daily rate of 30 fatalities, against the daily average of 45 in August. The city reported 1,124 deaths between August 1 and 25.

The state reported 329 new fatalities on Tuesday, taking the toll to 22,794 at a case fatality rate (CFR) of 3.24%. Of them, 241 deaths were reported in past 48 hours, 44 in the past week and remaining 44 were from the period before it. Pune district reported the highest fatalities at 58, of which 36 were in Pune city, 13 in rural parts of the district and nine in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Kolhapur district saw 37 fatalities, while Mumbai and Raigad rural reported 35 fatalities each. Nagpur and Aurangabad districts reported 24 and 21 fatalities each.

Pune district remained on the top even in daily infections, by reporting 2,528 cases in the past 24 hours. Of them, 1,228 were in Pune city, 458 in rural Pune and 842 in Pimpri-Chichwad. Nashik and Aurangabad cities, too, continued to be top contributors in daily infections with 675 and 605 cases respectively on Tuesday.

The total of recovered patients reached 514,790 after 12,300 recoveries were reported in the past 24 hours, taking the recovery rate to 73.14%, against national rate of 75.27%. Maharashtra has 165,921 active patients. Maharashtra has 12,53,273 patients under home quarantine, while 33,668 are institutionally quarantined.

61,423 tests were performed in the state in 24 hours at a positivity rate of 16.97%.

While cities like Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Aurangabad have succeeded in bringing down the number of new cases over the past few weeks, state authorities have been treading very cautiously. The authorities are wary of the resurgence owing to the festive season if due precautions are not taken. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has asked the district and civic administrations to be more vigilant to avoid any new surge due to festivals and monsoon-related ailments.

The state authorities are not happy with the pace the contacts are being traced and tracked in the districts and civic bodies where the cases are more. “The only effective way to stop the spread and emergence of new cases is aggressive tracing, testing of the contacts, where we are lagging badly. The fatigue the healthcare system is facing over the last six months could be one of the reasons for it, but it should be intensified. In some parts of the state, the health infrastructure is poor, which is leading to more deaths,” said an official from the health department.

Dr Avinash Supe, former dean of Mumbai-based KEM hospital and member of the state committee appointed to recommend steps to curb the spread, said that in Mumbai and MMR, the rise has been controlled well. “There could be a couple of months more, when we can expect the downward trend. We have controlled it in Mumbai with weekly cases coming down to 6500 from 10,500 cases in May. Similarly the situation in MMR is under control, but its spreading peripherally, and the trend is expected to be witnessed at least for next two months. The emergence of the second wave of the infection depends on how carefully it sustains during the festive season,” he said.

Dr Supe said that strengthening of public health, supporting therapy and care of the elderly, and comorbid patients is the 3-point mantra that could help the authorities to keep the spread under check.

Dr Ravi Wankhedkar, past national president of Indian Medical Association has attributed high fatality rate to the poor health infrastructure. “Besides the issues with the tracing and tracking, the poor infrastructure in mofussil and rural areas is one of the reasons for the high number of cases and deaths. In districts like Dhule and Nandurbar, the turnaround time for the test report in more than 2 days. The spread is now more in the rural areas where the infrastructure is in a shambles. Fear among the people for the treatment is another reason for the high rate of fatalities,” he said.