Maha sees sharpest 1-day spike of 8,641 Covid cases

Maharashtra on Thursday recorded its highest single-day spike of 8,641 fresh Covid-19 cases, second in excess of 8,000, taking the tally to 284,281. The state has

Maharashtra on Thursday recorded its highest single-day spike of 8,641 fresh Covid-19 cases, second in excess of 8,000, taking the tally to 284,281. The state has 114,648 active cases. Maharashtra also recorded 266 fatalities on Thursday — its second-highest jump — taking the toll to 11,194. On Thursday, 5,527 patients were discharged in the state, pushing the tally of recoveries to 158,140. The state had breached the 8,000 cases mark for the first time on July 11 with 8,139 cases.

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Mumbai, meanwhile, recorded 1,476 new infections, taking the city’s total to 97,950. Mumbai has 24,307 active cases. It also recorded 56 new fatalities, pushing the city’s toll due to the disease to 5,523. The case fatality rate (CFR) in Mumbai stands at 5.6%, while the recovery rate is 70%. On July 15, Mumbai conducted 7,000 Covid-19 tests, among the highest number of tests conducted in a single day. Till date, Mumbai has conducted 415,390 tests.

Besides Mumbai, its surrounding areas continued to contribute a chunk of the fresh cases. Thane city and Thane district recorded 427 and 401 new cases, respectively. Kalyan-Dombivli recorded 590 new cases, taking the satellite city’s tally to 16,661. Vasai-Virar and Mira Bhayander recorded 326 and 134 new cases, respectively. Navi Mumbai recorded 285 new cases, while Ulhasnagar recorded 208 fresh infections. Pune city recorded 1,584 new cases, taking the city’s tally to 33,680, while Pune district and Pimpri-Chinchwad recorded 327 and 555 cases on Thursday.

Nashik recorded 213 cases, while Jalgaon district added 198 cases. Both Nashik and Jalgaon districts have over 5,000 cases each.

With the number of active cases reducing in Mumbai and new cases being added in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the region around Mumbai has emerged as the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak in the state. Most of the nine municipal corporations in the MMR, excluding Mumbai, are under lockdown for the past week. There has been a slight reduction in the cases from the region. The region still contributes to about 35% of the daily increase in cases; as against around 41% till last week.

Out of the 68,712 active cases in MMR, which has Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts, 44,405 active cases are from Thane, Palghar, and Raigad districts. The number of active cases in Mumbai has gone to the third position in the state after Thane district with 34,821 and Pune district with 27,389. Mumbai has 24,307 active cases.

State health minister Rajesh Tope said that the region saw a surge in cases after the state government planned to “unlock” curbs in the region. Maharashtra government announced gradual relaxation in curbs from June 3 as part of its Mission Begin Again. It provided relaxations for outdoor physical activities, including running, jogging, cycling, among others, from June 3. Subsequently, it opened up market areas, shops except for malls and shopping centres from June 5. It also allowed private offices to open up to 10% of its staff from June 8.

According to the data of the state health department, on June 3, MMR, excluding Mumbai, had 13,302 cases of the total 74,860, while on July 15, MMR has recorded 87,426 cases of the 275,640 cases, which is a jump of over six times. Till June 3, the cases in MMR constituted 17% of the cases in the state, now it constitutes nearly 32% (31.71%).

“The numbers increased in the last one month when we unlocked the state from June 3. People from MMR started traveling for work to Mumbai, and at that time Mumbai had several cases. Therefore, the numbers rose in MMR. However, they will be brought under control,” Tope said, while speaking to news channels.

Since the Maharashtra government announced relaxation in lockdown in June, including in red zone areas, where cases were on the rise, the state has recorded over 75% of the cases. From June 1 to July 15, the state has recorded a whopping 207,985 cases, which 75.45% of the tally.

As the cases have surged in the region, health infrastructure was found wanting. The local administrations have put municipal corporation areas under lockdown from the beginning of the month to grapple with the situation. Tope admitted that the health infrastructure in the area, except Thane city, has been weak and the government is building jumbo facilities in the region to deal with the shortage of beds.

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, in a meeting held last week, directed the local administrations to build jumbo facilities on the lines of the ones in Mumbai. He had also remarked that the directive to prepare for such facilities was given in April, but no such facility was erected.

Tope said that small periods of lockdowns are imposed to break the chain of transmission and to ramp up the infrastructure during that time. He said, “I accept the cases are increasing as the population is very dense. The health facilities should have been taken care of by the previous government as well. At present, we are focused on increasing beds here and overall healthcare facilities.”

“There is a shortage of ICU beds in MMR. Thane city is always taken care of, but besides that, other areas —Kalyan-Dombivli, Ambarnath, Badlapur, Bhiwandi, etc — the health infrastructure has not been taken care of. A multi-specialty hospital is needed in these areas. I have been speaking about this to the CM and also in the cabinet. Till then, we are planning a jumbo facility with 1,000 beds with oxygen supply and 350 ICU beds. It will be completed in a months’ time,” Tope added.

The minister also said that the health department has filled up a vacant post of health officer in the region to support the local administration. The state government is also going to provide private doctors antigen test kits free of cost. Besides that, Kalyan-Dombvli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) has set up a committee of corporators to engage with citizens in this battle against coronavirus. The twin cities recently overtook Thane city in the total number of cases recorded.

Tope added that the state government has planned to start five new laboratories in the MMR, one of which will be operational in Kalyan-Dombivli in this week. New laboratories will be set up in Bhiwandi, Badlapur, Ulhasnagar and Mira-Bhayander. In the absence of a laboratory, these areas had to depend on facilities in Thane, Navi Mumbai or Mumbai. “We will start five new laboratories in the region. There will be no delays as they have to depend on other city’s laboratories. A laboratory will start in the next three-four days in Kalyan-Dombivli. Right now, Kalyan-Dombivli is dependent on Thane, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai for testing,” he said.

Meanwhile, the state government has also asked Centre for some relaxations in the parameters for plasma therapy. Tope said that they have sought two relaxations from the Union health ministry that would lead to an increase in the number of plasma donors in the state. He said that the state government is now planning to start plasma therapy treatment in all the districts.

“We are planning to start an option for plasma therapy treatment in all the districts. Yesterday, we had a meeting with the Blood Bank Association. They want relaxations in the equipment to extract the plasma. Instead of apheresis device, the blood banks can extract it by a component method. The purpose of the two methods is the same, therefore it should be allowed. The apheresis device is expensive equipment. I have spoken to union health minister Harsh Vardhan, who has assured me he will look at it and approve it,” he said.

Tope added that the state has sought relaxation in parameter for a person to be an eligible donor. “Despite over 1.5 lakh recovered patients, very few donors have come forward because of the parameter for becoming an eligible donor. We have asked the union health ministry to relax the requirement of Immunoglobulin-G (IgG) and consider the recovered patients who os positive for IgG as a donor. If these two conditions are relaxation the plasma donation will get a push,” he said.

According to the figures released by the state government, the number of recovered patients in the city on Thursday at 67,830 is the same as the number of recovered patients on Wednesday. The state health department clarified that “There was an issue while updating these figures on the portal. Hence these numbers could not be updated today.”

According to daily covid-19 figures released by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), 707 positive patients recovered and were discharged on Thursday. Total number of patients who have been discharged so far are 68,537.

According to BMC, the total positive patients in Mumbai are 97,751. State and BMC figures differ because the state government pulls these figures out of the portal at a later time than the BMC.