Maharashtra records fewer than 5,000 cases for 11 days now

The percentage against the total number of patients have reduced to — 3.78% till date

Maharashtra recorded 3,442 cases on Tuesday, pushing the case count to 18,86,807. Toll reached 48,339 as 70 casualties were reported. Of them, 47 occurred in the last 48 hours, 23 in the last week, the health officials said.

Healthcare workers collect swab samples of a resident in Goregaon, on Tuesday. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

Active cases have further reduced to 71,356. The percentage against the total number of patients have also reduced to — 3.78% till date.

The state is reporting fewer than 5,000 Covid-19 cases for the last eleven days now. Even as mid-December has arrived, there is no sign of a potential second wave against the prediction made by the health experts.

It has clocked 65,161 cases in this month till date whereas 66,500 cases in November and 1,81,323 cases in October month in the corresponding period, shows a comparison of data for the last two months.

Dr Subhash Salunkhe, chairman, communicable diseases prevention control and technical committee of the state, said that the situation needs to be monitored till January end to reach on to a conclusion.

“Despite having a large number of vulnerable populations, Maharashtra is getting less cases of Covid-19, which means some sort of immunity is working for us. Still, we cannot say that the situation is improving as there is no decline in the number of cases, but at the same time cases are not going up as well. In my view, we will have to wait for another one and half months (till January end) to come on to a conclusion,” said Dr Salunkhe, who is also a public health expert.

To be on a safer side, the people should treat the situation as the lull before the storm, and act accordingly, he cautioned.

Showing a decline, Mumbai has clocked 521 cases, highest in the state, on Tuesday, taking the case count to 2,91,634. Of them, active cases are 14,096. There were 7 deaths reported and the toll in the city has reached 10,991.

Nashik city recorded 311 cases, second highest number of cases. Its case count stood at 72,811.

Nagpur city contributed the third highest number of infections in the daily caseload and it has recorded 263 cases. Their tally reached 91,859.

The state has completed a total 1,18,06,808 Covid tests with 58,446 tests conducted on Tuesday. The positivity rate for the day declined at 5.88% against the overall positivity rate of the state that stood at 15.98%.

The number of recovered patients reached 17,66,010 with 4,395 recorded in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate remains at 93.60%.