Maharashtra records 2,487 new Covid-19 cases, 89 deaths; Mumbai toll rise to 1,279

MUMBAI: Even as the state prepared to take baby steps towards normal life, a total of 2,487 Covid-19 cases were reported on Sunday, taking the cumulative count of affected individuals to 67,655. Also, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region breached the 50,000 mark on Sunday. With 51,397 cases, MMR alone accounts for 76% of the state’s overall load.
Eighty-nine Covid-19 deaths were reported on Sunday, pushing Maharashtra’s toll to 2,286; the state said that of the 89 deaths, 39 occurred in the last two days and the rest were from April 27 to May 27. The state accounts for 43% of the country’s toll. Mumbai on Sunday recorded 52 deaths, its second highest on a single day. The city’s overall toll has reached 1,279—of which 989 deaths took place in May alone.

In the city, 1,244 cases were reported on Sunday, taking the overall to 39,686. BMC officials said that of the 52 deaths, eight took place between May 20 and 26. Despite the deaths, state officials said the case fatality rate for the state as well as the city have remained low, at 3.37% and 3.22%, respectively.
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said that of the 36,031 active Covid-19 cases in the state as of Sunday, the majority were asymptomatic, while around 9,500 had symptoms ranging from mild to serious. Out of that, 1,200 were critical, of which 200 were on ventilator, the CM said. Incidentally, figures released by the BMC on May 28 showed that over 270 people were on ventilator in Mumbai alone.
The CM said that the state has used the lockdown to expand its testing facilities and augment the number of beds. He said that the state had two testing labs on the first day when cases were reported, which has increased to 78, and in the next one week will be taken up to 100. The CM said there was a need to increase testing capacity as the monsoon is around the corner and it will bring other diseases. “We also want the Centre to reduce the cost of the Covid-19 test. Because with the rains around the corner, common fever and cold cases will increase and so a person should be able to get himself tested by paying less,” said Thackeray. Incidentally, the Indian Council of Medical Research has already asked individual states to renegotiate prices with private labs. Importantly, Thackeray admitted that the issue of bed allotment was yet to be fully sorted and steps were being taken to streamline it.
In Mumbai, the civic body claimed that under ‘project victory’ nephrologists and IIT-Bombay students have managed to develop a portal for dialysis patients. Over 160 dialysis facilities in the city will be providing real time information to the portal, including details of Covid-19 positive or suspect patients handled as well as logistical aspects, including bed assignments for inpatients needing dialysis care, and the transport of patients to designated facilities using a dedicated fleet of vehicles to be arranged for by the BMC.
Kidney patients were one of the worst hit at the beginning of the epidemic as there were limited machines for Covid-19 positive and suspect patients. The BMC subsequently added machines at SevenHills hospital, Trauma hospital and Nair hospital. “Nephrologists from Mumbai and IIT engineers got together to create a patient and dialysis facility management platform that shows the availability of machines, slots. The portal is handled by a set of central clinical coordinators. Around 373 patients have been registered on the portal so far.
Meanwhile, the state claimed that the case doubling time has improved to 17.5 days from 11.7 days. The same for the country is 15.7 days.