Maharashtra Covid-19 tally rises to 1,576,062; death toll is 40,512

Maharashtra on Friday reported 11,447 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the state’s tally to 1,576,062. The state also reported 306 fatalities, pushing up the toll to

Maharashtra on Friday reported 11,447 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the state’s tally to 1,576,062. The state also reported 306 fatalities, pushing up the toll to 40,512. Active cases in Maharashtra stood at 189,715.

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Mumbai, meanwhile, witnessed 1,823 new infections, which took the city’s case tally to 238,544. Thirty seven fatalities took Mumbai’s death toll to 9,638. The city’s has 22,884 active cases as of Friday.

Of the 306 fatalities reported across the state on Friday, 111 were from the past 48 hours, 70 from the previous week and 125 from the period before that, according to the state health department data. The state’s case fatality rate (CFR) remained unchanged from Thursday at 2.63%.

While Maharashtra has witnessed a steady decline in fresh Covid-19 cases over the past fortnight, the state is also witnessing a gradual slide in fatalities too.

A comparison of death figures from the first fortnight of September and the same period in October revealed a 22% drop in fatalities.

State health department officials attributed the declining fatalities to better clinical management, timely referral to hospitals and the state government’s ‘My Family, My Responsibility’ programme.

“The situation is stabilising in terms of fresh cases. But this curve could reverse in the next three weeks with the festive season coming up. Besides, we have seen decline in deaths too. This is owing to months of effort in standardising treatment protocol, clinical management. With patients referred to hospitals on time, it helps doctors save lives. The ‘My Family, My Responsibility’ campaign, too, has helped in creating awareness, identifying probable cases, which were then timely referred to hospitals,” said a senior health department official.

Dr Subhash Salunkhe, chairman of the state technical committee on communicable diseases and former state health commissioner, said, efforts of the past few months are fructifying now, but not to the extent of what was desired.

“The trend we are seeing is definitely a positive sign. People are now coming forward to get tested and seek medical intervention. Referrals to hospitals are getting quicker, but the percentage of people dying in the first 48 hours [of admission] is still on the higher side. However, it is coming down,” he said.

According to Salunkhe, the change in clinical management protocol, which is developed by the task force, is giving opportunities to physicians to follow a standardised process. “For instance, Remdesivir was given late, but now we have said that it has to be given at the right time – not too early, not too late.

Similarly, in case of steroids. Doctors are getting confident about treating more patients. The situation in Pune is also getting better and overall we are seeing a downward trend. However, we want it [CFR] to reduce further, and come under 1%,” he said.

The CFR in the state remained at 2.64% for 11 days (between October 3 and October 13), and it has been at 2.63% since October 14. “The reason for CFR remaining constant is that if the denominator [confirmed cases] is getting reduced, naturally the rate will remain higher,” Salunkhe said.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra is set to cross eight million Covid-19 tests on Saturday, as the state has so far tested 79,89,693 samples. The state’s overall positivity rate stands at 19.73%. In the past 24 hours, the state tested 75,042 samples. Currently, 2,333,522 people are in home quarantine and 23,409 people are in institutional quarantine facilities.