Maharashtra nears 1.5 million Covid cases

Maharashtra on Thursday inched closer to 1.5 million Covid-19 cases after reporting 13,395 new infections, taking the count to 1,493,884.

Maharashtra on Thursday inched closer to 1.5 million Covid-19 cases after reporting 13,395 new infections, taking the count to 1,493,884.

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The plateauing trend of cases over the past few weeks has also led to a further fall in active cases to 241,986, accounting for 16.19% of the state’s total.

The state is likely to breach the 1.5 million cases marks eight days after crossing the 1.4 million mark on October 1. The state will also complete over 500,000 cases in 28 days after crossing 1 million infections on September 11.

On Thursday, the toll climbed up to 39,430 after 358 casualties were reported, of which, 187 were reported in the past 48 hours, another 55 were from the past week, while the remaining 116 were from the period before that, health officials said.

The state has continued to record comparatively fewer fresh infections, as in the past eight days. Between October 1 and October 8, 110,592 cases were recorded. The number was 150,920 in the corresponding period last month (September), indicating the situation is getting a little better than the previous month, following a fall in the infection rate.

However, officials said the state is still testing less than its full capacity.

“The situation is improving, but we are also not testing enough. Our average per day testing is somewhere around 80,000-90,000 tests a day, which is not even 60% of the target set by the state. Unless and until we do not utilise full testing capacity and even then, if the rate of infection remains unchanged, it is difficult to say that the situation will not reverse in the coming future,” said a senior official, requesting anonymity.

Last month, the state government had set a target to increase daily Covid testing to 1.5 lakh a day from the current average, but there has been no progress on that front.

In the last eight days (since October 1), 619,026 tests were conducted and its per day average comes to only 77,378 tests, which is almost half the state’s target.

“One of the problems behind less testing the officials pointed out is contact tracing. Despite the state’s directives on aggressive tracing, the authorities have yet to increase contact tracing. The spread can be reduced only if we could trace maximum people behind one patient,” said another official, wishing not to be named.

On Thursday, the state conducted 80,043 tests. Total tests conducted till date are 7,404,231. The positivity rate recorded was 20.18%.

Mumbai continues to report the highest number of cases across the state as it recorded 2,823 cases. It also recorded its second-highest single day spike on Thursday, pushing its tally to 222,784. Of them, active cases are 26,383. The city also recorded 48 deaths.

The scenario in Mumbai has changed from September, when daily cases in the city kept going up.

On Wednesday, the city recorded its highest single-day spike of 2,848 cases.

Pune city continues to contribute second-highest infections, in terms of daily caseload, as it recorded 808 cases, taking its tally to 162,904, while Pune district became the third-highest contributor with 636 cases, pushing its count to 67,902. The combined total of Pune comes to 1,444 cases.

Despite a decline in cases, Covid-19 casualties are not reducing. Maharashtra still has the highest number of casualties across the country.

On Thursday, the state’s CFR was recorded at 2.64%, making it second after Punjab. The CFR of Punjab was 3.07% (with 3,712 deaths) till Wednesday, according to the information shared by the state medical education department.

The number of recovered patients also reached 1,196,441 as 15,575 patients recovered in the past 24 hours. The recovery rate was recorded at 81.13%.