Mumbai records highest 1-day spike of 2,848 Covid infections

Keeping with the plateauing trajectory of Covid-19 cases across the state over the past two weeks, Maharashtra clocked 14,578 new infections, even as Mumbai registered

Keeping with the plateauing trajectory of Covid-19 cases across the state over the past two weeks, Maharashtra clocked 14,578 new infections, even as Mumbai registered its highest single-day spike of 2,848 infections

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Regions other than the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) have seen a drastic drop in cases over the past few weeks. On Wednesday, the state’s case tally reached 1,480,489, which includes 219,961 infections from Mumbai.

Mumbai’s toll touched 9,248 after it reported 46 fatalities on Wednesday.

With 355 new fatalities reported across the state on Wednesday, the toll reached 39,072, of which, 211 were from last two days, 48 were from last one week and remaining 96 were from the period before it, according to the state health department.

Pune district retained its second position in terms of new infections by reporting2,343 cases, which included 966 in city, 851 in rural areas and 526 in Pimpri-Chinchwad. The district reported 40 deaths. Following Mumbai and Pune; Ahmednagar and Nashik districts were top contributors with 902 cases (14 deaths) and 1,108 cases (7 deaths) respectively. With 57,926 patients, Pune tops the chart of active cases, followed by Thane (31,770) and Mumbai (26,544). Total active cases in the state dropped to 244,527, taking the recovery rate to 80.81%, against the national rate of 84.7%.

The state has witnessed a steady drop in new infections over the last two weeks, after cases in districts like Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, Sangli, Kolhapur saw a dip in the cases. While the cases in peripheral districts succeeded to bring the growth rate down, cities in MMR, which comprises nine municipal corporations including Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivli and rural parts of Thane, Raigad, Palghar, reported a rise in cases over the past four weeks. Opening up of activities and lifting of restrictions on mobility are the reasons attributed to the rise.

The share in the daily cases in MMR in the state caseload increased to 32.61% on October 6, from 19.20% four weeks ago on September 8 and 21.07% two weeks ago on September 22. Western Maharashtra’s share reduced to 32.61% from 38.98% a month ago. North Maharashtra reported dip in daily cases to 12.56% on October 6, from 14.29% in September 8. Vidarbha and Marathwada cases dropped to 15.58% and 0.90% from 14.59% and 11.10% during this period.

While rural parts of Thane, Palghar and Raigad have witnessed a drop over the past four weeks, the cities in MMR have clocked a rise during this period. “We have aggressively opened up activities, including restaurants, industries, and have also increased the number of local services for essential/emergency sectors. Apart from it, the number of tests has been hugely increased over the past few weeks. Lack of sense of Covid-appropriate behaviour among people is another reason for the rise in cases. Mobility within MMR is higher than any other part of the state. All these reasons result in the rise in the cases, although we are hopeful to keep it stable and gradually bring it down in the near future,” said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

In Mumbai, the highest single-day spike recorded until Wednesday was on September 30 — 2,654 cases being reported in a day. Since the first week of September, the city has been reporting nearly 2,000 cases on a daily basis.

Of the total Covid-19 cases recorded in the Mumbai so far, 26, 544 are active cases in the city at present, while 1, 83, 742 patients have been recovered and discharged so far. The recovery rate stands at 83% and case fatality rate is 4.2%. As per BMC’s data, out of 46 deaths, one death was below 40 years of age, 16 deaths were of people between 40 to 60 years and 29 deaths were above 60 years of age. The city’s doubling rate of cases in the city is 67 days. On Wednesday, Dharavi reported 12 new Covid cases with the total cases reaching 3,292 cases.

Rajesh Tope said on Tuesday that although the state is reaching a plateau, people should not be negligent and follow the guidelines.

Experts, however, feel that the state has reached the plateau and if the trend continued for next two weeks, there could be a drastic fall in cases by the month’s end. “The overall fall in the number of cases is owing to attainment of plateau, herd immunity witnessed in containment areas-hotspots and drop in the tests by the authorities. The natural history of any epidemic disease sees a plateau after third stage. If we continue with the downward trend for next two weeks, we can expect the number of daily tests to fall below 5,000. The hope, however, comes with a rider. The people should not let their guard down and the government should continue tracing and testing susceptible people,” said Avinash Bhondve, Maharashtra president, Indian Medical Association.

82,812 tests were conducted in the state in the last 24 hours with a positivity rate of 17.60%. 2,248,741 people are under home quarantine, while 25,655 are institutionally quarantined.