NAGPUR: February, the month that began with a ray of hope with fewer Covid-19 cases and more recoveries, has witnessed a complete flip in last seven days. With more than 2,000 cases reported for the third day in a row on Saturday, Vidarbha’s total Covid-19 cases in the month of February reached 22,428, surpassing January’s caseload of 21,065. More than half of the cases in February have been reported in the last seven days (from February 14 to 20). With eight days more to go, February might surpass 52,177 cases reported in December 2020.
The sudden surge in cases due to new mutations of virus has resulted in lockdown-like restrictions in most districts of Vidarbha. February 21 will be the first Sunday of the New Year on which more than half of Vidarbha will observe complete shutdown of markets, shops and businesses.
On Saturday, 2,379 cases were reported in Vidarbha. More than 2,300 cases were last reported on October 13, 2020. Highest cases of the day came from Amravati where 894 patients were detected positive. These include 727 tested in the city through RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests and 163 cases added by the ICMR authorities. Amravati conducted 2,131 tests on Saturday, which means the positivity rate was more than 34%.
Nagpur reported 725 cases of the 9,443 tests conducted in district. The positivity rate is still under 10%. Buldhana reported 215 positive cases out of 1,030 tests done in a day. Akola conducted 813 tests and 200 reported positive. In Yavatmal, 145 out of 449 samples tested positive. Cases also came from Washim (93), Wardha (56), Chandrapur (22), Bhandara (20), Gondia (6), and Gadchiroli (3) which took total caseload of Vidarbha to 2,96,136.
Though recoveries also reported a good surge and almost doubled as compared to Friday, the recovery rate of Vidarbha has gone down. Total 1,103 recoveries on Saturday came from Nagpur (502), Amravati (159), Wardha (150), Buldhana (101), Yavatmal (81), Akola (75), Chandrapur (18), Washim (9), Bhandara (6), Gondia (2), and Gadchiroli (0).
At 24, Vidarbha reported highest death toll of the month of February. Amravati, which is worst-hit at present, reported seven deaths in a day, followed by Nagpur (6), Akola (4), Buldhana (3), Wardha (2), and Yavatmal (2). Vidarbha’s death toll reached 7205.
Akola: The district reported 200 new cases, 75 recoveries and 4 deaths. The deceased include a 30-year-old woman, 73-year-old woman, 80-year-old woman and 75 year-old man. Except one patient who was admitted on February 9, all three were admitted between February 17 and 19 which means they were reported in critical condition. Akola now has 13,593 total cases, 11,496 recoveries, 352 deaths and 1,745 patients are under treatment.
Buldhana: The district reported three deaths on Saturday. This took Buldhana’s death toll to 186. Total 215 new cases and 101 recoveries took Buldhana’s total caseload to 15,845 and recovery count to 14,496.
Washim: With 93 new cases, Washim’s total caseload reached 7,648. No death was reported on Saturday.
Gadchiroli: The district reported three new cases and no recoveries on Saturday.
Gondia: The district saw six new cases and two recoveries. Gondia now has 14,322 cases.
Bhandara: Out of 541 tests, Bhandara reported 20 cases positive. Six patients recovered in a day.
Wardha: A 63-year-old man and a 80-year-old woman from Wardha died due to coronavirus on Saturday, taking the toll to 326 while new 56 cases were reported.
Yavatmal: The district recorded two deaths. There are 929 active patients undergoing treatment.
Chandrapur: There were 22 new cases and 18 recoveries in Chandrapur on Saturday. Total caseload rose to 23,339.
Amravati: Even as the district reeled into a 36-hour lockdown from 8pm on Saturday, an all-time high spike of 727 and seven deaths took the district’s caseload to 28,815 and toll to 460.