Maharashtra sees lowest one-day Covid toll since July 18; tally 1,595,381

Maharashtra’s Covid-19 case tally inched closer to the 1.6 million mark as 9,060 new infections took the count to 1,595,381, even as the state reported its lowest

Maharashtra’s Covid-19 case tally inched closer to the 1.6 million mark as 9,060 new infections took the count to 1,595,381, even as the state reported its lowest one-day toll in 92 days with 150 deaths. The state on July 18 had reported 144 deaths.

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Maharashtra’s Covid-19 toll on Sunday reached 42,115, as the average number of daily deaths in October went down to 303, from 403 in September and 309 in August. Of the 150 fatalities reported on Sunday, 46 were in Mumbai, taking the city’s toll to 9,785; 14 in Nagpur; nine each in Pune and Satara. The state’s case fatality rate (CFR) stands at 2.64%. Mumbai on Sunday reported 1,600 new cases, taking its tally to 241,935.

With the drop in daily caseload over the past four weeks, the last 100,000 cases are expected to be reported in 10 days. The previous 100,000 cases were reported in eight days. In September, 100,000 cases were reported in just five days on two occasions. However, the state machinery is wary of a surge in cases by the end of November amid the onset of winter coinciding with more curbs lifted and the ongoing festival season.

Meanwhile, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray warned citizens about a potential second wave if social distancing and personal hygiene protocols were not strictly followed. Thackeray said on Sunday that the battle against Covid-19 is at a turning point and Covid-appropriate behaviour by citizens will play a crucial role in avoiding a potential second wave. “It is up to the people of the state to decide whether they want the second wave or they adopt the protocol of mask, physical distancing and sanitisation. The mask will play the role of vaccine until it is available to fight the coronavirus,” he said, while inaugurating an apheresis unit for plasma therapy at a district hospital in Ratnagiri.

On the state expecting a surge in cases by November-end, a senior official from the health department said, “Two weeks after major activities have been opened up in the state, we have witnessed a surge in cases. We expect a similar rise in the next few weeks as a result of the unlocking rolled out in the first week of the month. The surge, however, would not be as high as in the first two weeks of September, when we saw daily cases at an average of 20,354. The virus is very unpredictable and the projections about its behaviour and infection curve have gone wrong across the globe. The surge, however, depends upon how seriously Covid precautions are followed by citizens.”

Maharashtra tested 70,336 samples in the last 24 hours with a positivity rate of 12.88%, though the overall positivity rate of the state stands at 19.6%. The recovery rate is reported to have touched 85.86%, after the number of recovered patients touched 1,369,810 on Sunday. There are 1,82,973 active patients, including 39,845 in Pune.

State has 2,412,921 people under home quarantine, while 23,384 are institutionally quarantined.