Covid-19: As India witnesses second wave, Maharashtra records its highest-ever new cases

Coronavirus in Maharashtra: On Thursday, Maharashtra recorded a whopping 25,883 new cases of COVID-19, which is the highest the state has seen ever since the pandemic first struck India in March last year. Before this, the highest number of daily cases that Maharashtra had recorded was 24,886 cases on September 11, 2020, according to a report in The Indian Express. However, what is a bigger cause of concern is the fact that Maharashtra is not the only state from where high numbers of daily cases are being reported.

States like Punjab, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Tamil Nadu are all reporting very high single-day case counts for this year. This is concerning because it indicates the possibility of the country witnessing a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, with the infection spreading very rapidly even as an extensive vaccination drive is being undertaken. Meanwhile, other states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Chhattisgarh have also started to show a spike in cases, with Bihar having reported over 100 new cases on Thursday. This marked the first time in one and a half months that the state reached triple digits for the number of new cases.

A slight relief, however, is that barring Punjab and Maharashtra, none of the states is anywhere close to recording new cases similar to the peaks they had achieved last year.

India on Thursday collectively recorded nearly 40,000 cases, for the first time since November 28, while over 160 deaths were reported.

Notably, Maharashtra has been showcasing a much steeper rise in the number of coronavirus infections in this second wave of the pandemic, than it had last year. This year, the state was recording less than 3,000 cases a day till February 9, but it rapidly began reporting an increasing number of cases, breaching its highest number of cases only 40 days later. This is in contrast with last year’s wave when it crossed the 3,000-mark for the first time at the beginning of June, only to reach its highest number of cases during that wave on September 11 over four months later.

What is more worrisome is the fact that it is uncertain whether this new high that Maharashtra touched on Thursday would be a new peak, or whether the cases would continue to rise in the state like they have been for the past one week.