Maharashtra breaches 43,000-mark of Covid-19 deaths; less than 10,000 cases for sixth consecutive day

For the sixth consecutive day, Maharashtra recorded fewer than 10,000 new cases of Covid-19. On Friday, 7,347 new cases were reported, taking the state’s Covid tally to 1,632,544. The percentage of active cases is 8.81% (143, 922 cases) and with 13,247 recoveries recorded in the last 24 hours, the recovery rate is 88.52%. The total number of recovered patients is 1,445,103. Officials said it was important to maintain this downward trend till November.

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On Friday, the state recorded 184 new deaths from Covid-19, taking the toll to 43,015. In the last 23 days, Maharashtra has recorded 6,140 deaths. Mumbai continues to report the highest incidence of Covid-19 in the state with 1,470 new cases on Friday and a total of 248,802 cases. Active cases stand at 17,667 in the city. With 48 new deaths reported on Friday, the city’s Covid-19 death toll is 10,009.

Nagpur city recorded 479 new cases on Friday — the second-highest number of cases in the state — pushing its case count to 75,550. Pune city was in third place, with a daily caseload of 325 bringing its Covid tally to 169,870.

Maharashtra has consistently reported the most deaths from Covid-19 in the country. However, the figures have improved since August, when 7,259 deaths were reported between August 1-23.

While the state aims to lower the case fatality rate (CFR) to 1%, at present it stands at 2.63%, the second-highest in India after Punjab. As of Thursday, Punjab’s CFR was 3.14%.

A senior official requesting anonymity said, “We are focusing on casualties. We are also doing regular audits of deaths and found some lapses in the recent audit. There is still scope of improving contract tracing and referrals to Covid hospitals as patients are coming late, which can lead to loss of life. We are still working on removing the fear of taking Covid tests through counselling.”

In terms of caseload, Maharashtra has recorded 249,252 cases in the last 23 days, which is less than the 260,704 cases recorded between August 1 and August 23. “The low count needs to be continued until November. Everything depends upon how things turn out after Dussehra and Diwali,” said another official, on condition of anonymity.

Till Friday, the state had conducted 8,479,155 tests, with 76,596 conducted in the last 24 hours. The state’s overall positivity rate is 19.25%.