Record rise of 13,165 cases as Maha surge likely till mid-Sept

Maharashtra on Wednesday recorded its highest single-day jump in Covid-19 infections with 13,165 new cases, taking its tally to 628,642, even as officials expect the daily caseload record to be broken multiple times owing to increased testing, at least till mid-September. The state also breached the 21,000 mark in fatalities with 346 deaths reported, taking the toll to 21,033. Active cases in the state have climbed to 160,413.

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The previous highest single-day spike recorded in the state was on August 8 with 12,822 cases. Of the deaths reported on Wednesday, 249 were from the previous 48 hours and 59 were from last week. The remaining 38 deaths were from the period before last week. The recovery rate of the state improved to 71.09%, with 9,011 people discharged on Wednesday. So far, 446,881 have recovered in the state.

Mumbai, meanwhile, reported 1,132 new infections, taking the city’s tally to 131,542. Mumbai reported 46 fatalities, taking its death toll to 7,268. Besides Mumbai, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) reported 2,318 new cases and 63 fatalities. Senior state government officials said the rate of infection was still high in MMR.

An official said the situation in municipal corporations in the MMR needed to come under control as a chunk of population from these areas travel to Mumbai for work and other economic activities. “Mumbai is showing signs of stabilising with a weekly growth rate under 1%. If the movement of people from these areas increases to Mumbai, then cases can go up in the city. The state had not recommended restarting the suburban railway service as cases were high in the MMR,” he said, requesting anonymity. The state government on Wednesday allowed resumption of inter-district bus service of the state transport corporation from Thursday.

People wishing to travel between districts in their private vehicles will, however, have to take permission or get an e-Pass.

Maharashtra chief secretary Sanjay Kumar issued an order announcing that inter-district plying of only Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) will be allowed under the sixth phase of Mission Begin Again. “No permission/approval/ e-pass will be required for the buses and passengers travelling in the buses of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation,” the order stated.

State transport minister Anil Parab said that the demand for ST buses was increasing and therefore the government took the decision to provide this relaxation. With the Ganeshotsav commencing on Saturday (August 22), several people travelling to their native town or villages will benefit from this relaxation. “We had kept the buses prepared. Looking at the demand of the people, we are starting the ST service. The guidelines for travel will, however, remain the same. Physical distancing will have to be maintained. Only 22 passengers will be allowed to travel on a bus to avoid close contact among the passengers,” he said. The minister added that there has been no revision in the ST bus fares.

Maharashtra, meanwhile, is expected to see highs in the daily caseload with an increased number of tests, state health department officials said. As per the data of the health department, 73,464 samples were tested on Wednesday and the state had a positivity rate of 17.92%. On Tuesday, 58,136 samples were tested and 11,119 were found positive and had a positivity rate of 19.12%. The overall positivity rate of the state stood at 18.83%.

“Generally on weekends, the number of samples tested is lower, therefore, the numbers tend to show a decline on Monday and Tuesdays. The number of cases increases around mid-week, but correspondingly the tests, too, has gone up. Largely, the cases that are added daily are asymptomatic. Besides that, districts have been directed to ramp up beds with oxygen supply considering cases have spiked in tier-two cities and rural areas.” the health department official said. The department said that Covid-19 infections will see a downward trend after mid-September in the state.

Maharashtra’s case fatality rate (CFR) continued to be a cause of concern for the state government. So far, in August alone the state has reported 6,039 deaths. The CFR in the state stood at 3.35%, much higher than the national rate of 1.91%. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has already directed the state administration to control the number of fatalities with interventions. In a Covid review meeting held on Tuesday, Thackeray asked district health officials to engage with the State level Covid task force.

On Wednesday, Pune district, which consists of Pune rural, Pune city and Pimpri-Chinchwad, reported 2688 new cases. Pune city reported 1,233 cases and 38 fatalities, while Pimpri-Chinchwad saw 795 cases and 27 deaths. The rural area of the district reported 660 cases and 21 fatalities. Pune district is the worst-affected district in the state with 1,37,601 confirmed cases so far. Of the total cases, 40,665 are active in the district.

Rural and semi-urban areas of the state are reporting a high number of cases in the last month. Nagpur city, the state’s second capital, reported 817 new infections, taking the city’s tally to 11,395. It also reported 23 fatalities. Nagpur rural reported 180 new cases and three fatalities. Nashik rural and Nashik city reported 231 and 520 new infections, respectively.

Ahmednagar district saw 603 new infections. While Jalgaon rural saw 496 new cases and Jalgaon city reported 109 new cases. Solapur rural reported 399 new cases and 15 fatalities, while Kolhapur rural saw 387 new cases and 13 fatalities. Sangli district recorded 319 new infections, while Aurangabad district reported 546 fresh cases. Osmanabad and Beed reported 306 and 263 new cases respectively, taking their respective tallies over 4,000 and 3,000.