Maharashtra’s Covid-19 tally rises to 1,453,653, as state sees lowest spike in 49 days

Maharashtra on Monday reported 10,244 Covid-19 infections, its lowest spike in 49 days, taking the case count to 1,453,653. On August 17, 8,493 cases were reported.

Maharashtra on Monday reported 10,244 Covid-19 infections, its lowest spike in 49 days, taking the case count to 1,453,653. On August 17, 8,493 cases were reported. Active cases also went down to 252,277, accounting for 17.35% of the total.

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The state’s Monday low, in terms of cases, could, however, be attributed to testing numbers. Maharashtra conducted only 58,683 tests on Monday, 75,908 on Sunday and 75,093 on Saturday — all lower than the usual range of 80,000 to 90,000 tests.

According to the state’s latest data, the toll climbed up to 38,347 after 263 casualties were reported, of which, 133 were in the past 48 hours, another 58 were from the past week, while the remaining 72 deaths were from the period before that.

Fresh infections across the state have continued to be on a comparative decline. In the past five days, 70,361 cases have been recorded, down from the 91,010 cases in the corresponding period last month. In the past week, the state has recorded 103,654 cases, lowest of the previous four weeks. In the first week of September, cases reported were 130,789, second week saw 153,972 cases, third week had 148,365 cases and fourth week saw 126,773 cases, according to state data.

“Cases are declining in the state, a good sign. This is because areas such as Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, which were contributing most cases, are now seeing fewer infections. In Mumbai, the situation is yet to come under control and if that happens, then improvement will be significant,” said a senior official, wishing not to be named.

“A rise in cases has been observed soon after fresh relaxations come into effect. There is a chance that cases will rise again, but we are working on keeping the same in mind and are hoping that this time there won’t be any rise,” he added.

Mumbai continues to report the highest number of cases across the state as it recorded 1,836 on Monday, pushing its tally to 215,488. Of them, active cases were 26,392. It has also recorded 47 deaths.

The scenario in Mumbai has changed from September, when the cases went up and have yet to come down. Nashik city contributed the second-highest infections to the daily caseload as it recorded 654 cases, taking its tally to 56,660 while Satara district became the third-highest contributor with 486 cases pushing its count to 39,755. Pune city, which was contributing highest cases in the state at one point of time, on Monday recorded only 395 cases.

A total of 7,169,887 tests have been conducted till date and the positivity rate recorded is 20.27%.

Despite a decline in cases, casualties are not reducing Maharashtra still has the highest number of casualties across the country. Tamil Nadu has reported the second-highest number of deaths — 9,784.

“There needs to be more awareness among people as still patients are found not keen on doing Covid tests. They admit to a hospital only when conditions worsen, which makes it difficult for doctors to save lives,” said another official from the health department.

On Saturday, state’s CFR was recorded at 2.64%, which comes at second position after Punjab. The CFR of Punjab was 3.05% (with 3,603 deaths) till Sunday, according to information shared by the state medical education department.

The number of recovered patients also reached 1,162,585 as 12,982 patients recovered in the past 24 hours.