Maharashtra sees less than 10,000 Covid-19 cases for tenth day in row

Maharashtra on Tuesday recorded 5,363 Covid-19 cases, making it the 10th consecutive day where the daily count was less than 10,000 cases, bringing the tally to

Maharashtra on Tuesday recorded 5,363 Covid-19 cases, making it the 10th consecutive day where the daily count was less than 10,000 cases, bringing the tally to 1,654,028. The number of active cases continued to fall, coming down to 131,544 – 7.95% of the total cases reported so far. The toll has reached 43,463, with 115 casualties in the past 24 hours, health officials said.

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Dr Subhash Salunkhe, chairman, communicable diseases prevention control and technical committee of the state, said the next two months are very crucial. “We have to be very cautious. We have seen a decline in countries such as Germany, Italy and Spain, but after some time, it resulted in a sudden spurt in cases, which is known as ‘second wave’. We should be prepared for any resurgence, believing that this could be a deceptive decline.” Apart from ongoing festivals, winter is another reason to keep the guard up. “There is a possibility of rise in cases in the coming season, which is favourable to respiratory diseases. We have to watch the situation in November and December. We also have to stock medicines, oxygen supply and keep hospitals ready for any situation. If a constant drop in cases continues till January, it would mean things are getting better,” Dr Salunkhe said.

The total number of cases recorded from October 1-27 is 270,736, compared to 593,192 cases reported in September. Last month saw the highest number of cases in the state since March, when the first Covid-19 case was detected.

Mumbai, however, continues to record the highest number of cases in the state with 801 fresh infections on Tuesday. Its case count is 252,886, and the number of active cases 18,633. The city’s toll touched 10,165, with 23 casualties.

Nashik city contributed to the second highest infections in the daily caseload, as it recorded 337 cases, taking its tally to 63,890. Ahmednagar district recorded 250 cases, third highest, pushing its case count to 36,999.

Although there is a decline in cases, the number of deaths has not reduced in proportion, so the case fatality rate (CFR) is yet to come down. The state has maintained second position after Punjab in the country, with CFR at 2.63%. Punjab’s CFR was 3.14% (with 4,125 deaths) on Monday, according to the information shared by the state medical education department.

The state is also far away from its target of CFR of 1%. “The drop in casualties is not significant. It means that there are issues that need to be addressed,” Dr Salukhe said.

The state has completed 87 lakh Covid tests, with 54,838 conducted on Tuesday. The positivity rate for the day was 9.77%, against the overall positivity rate of the state that stood at 19.01%. The number of recovered patients also reached 1,478,496 as 7,836 recoveries were recorded in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate was 89.39%.