With slight drop in Covid-19 deaths, Maharashtra toll crosses 44,000 mark

Maharashtra recorded 5,369 cases on Sunday, pushing the state’s case count to 1,683,775. It was the 15th consecutive day when less than 10,000 cases were recorded.

Maharashtra recorded 5,369 cases on Sunday, pushing the state’s case count to 1,683,775. It was the 15th consecutive day when less than 10,000 cases were recorded. After a steady decrease over the past weeks, the number of active cases slightly increased to 125,109, which means that at present, 7.43% of patients are receiving treatment at various hospitals and Covid-19 care centres in the state.

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On Sunday, the state death toll breached the 44,000 mark with 113 casualties reported in the last 24 hours. The toll stood at 44,024, health officials said.

As the state has been recording a downward trend in Covid-19 cases in recent weeks, it has also recorded a slight drop in related deaths. In the last week of October, 759 mortalities were reported, as opposed to the previous week when 1,187 deaths were reported.

In early October, it took three days for the death count to increase by 1,000. It has now stretched to nine days as the state crossed the 43,000-mark of Covid deaths on October 23. Maharashtra crossed the 42,000-mark on October 18, 41,000 deaths on October 15, 40,000 deaths on October 10, 39,000 deaths on October 7, 38,000 deaths on October 4 and 39,000 deaths on October 1, according to statistics by the state health department.

Dr Rahul Pandit, member of the state-appointed task force for the clinical management of critical patients said that the number of deaths in the first 24 to 48 hours of testing positive has come down but they have yet to confirm if the deaths occurring in the second or third week have reduced.

“There is a bimodal pattern for Covid-19 deaths. In the first pattern, patients die within the first 24 to 48 hours, or they succumb to the illness in the second or third week. As per our observation, the number of deaths occurring in the first pattern has declined, but for the second pattern, we need to wait for a week or more to examine if there is a drop. If there is a drop proportionate to the cases, then we can say that the deaths from the second pattern are also going down. But if not, then we need to make sure that comorbid patients are taken care, and secondary infection problems in patients, if any, have to be recognised,” said Dr Pandit, who is also the director, critical care at Fortis Hospital, Mulund.

Mumbai continues to record the highest number of cases in the state, with 908 fresh infections reported on Sunday. The case count now stands at 258,405. The number of active cases in the city reduced to 18,522 and the city’s toll reached 10,318 after 25 casualties were reported on Sunday.

Pune city contributed the second-highest number of daily infections in the state with 346 cases, taking its tally to 172,575.

Pune district recorded 278 cases, pushing its case count to 77,492.

The state has completed 90 lakh Covid-19 tests with 57,468 conducted on Sunday. Its tally stood at 9,024,871. The positivity rate for the day was 9.34% against the overall positivity rate of the state which stood at 18.66%. The number of recovered patients reached 1,514,079, with 3,726 recorded in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate stands at 89.92%.