Those travelling to Kashmir by road to undergo COVID-19 testsMumbai, Apr 09: The state health department has said that the number of active coronavirus cases in Maharashtra is likely to cross the 1.1 million-mark by April 30 in the absence of adequate measures to control the spread of the virus. This is being considered as the second wave in the state, which began around February 11.
State health department principal secretary Pradeep Vyas on Wednesday said, "We are recording more cases than we predicted. The state has already recorded 50 per cent more active cases during this wave, in comparison to the previous wave in September 2020. If cases increase in this proportion, by April 17 we will have around 568,000 active cases."
On Thursday, Maharashtra reported 56,286 new COVID-19 cases, and 376 deaths, taking the tally to 3,229,547 and toll to 57,028. The active cases in the state have now touched 521,317. The cumulative case fatality rate in the state is now 1.76 per cent. On Wednesday, a total of 236,815 tests were held, with a positivity rate of 23 per cent for the day.
Those travelling to Kashmir by road to undergo COVID-19 tests
On Wednesday, the state recorded 59,907 cases, its highest single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic. Mumbai recorded 8,938 cases on Thursday, taking its cumulative positives to 491,980. Mumbai is expected to cross half a million cumulative cases on Friday, civic officials said. The city recorded 25 deaths on Thursday, taking its overall fatalities to 11,881.
It can be seen that the surge is causing immense stress on the health infrastructure in the state. To streamline availability of beds for COVID-19 patients, health minister Rajesh Tope has directed all district collectors and municipal commissioners to adopt Mumbai's model of centralised bed allotment.
Despite the current shortage in vaccine vials, Tope said the state has requested the Centre to allow vaccination of all citizens in the age group of 18-45 years, as the maximum cases in this wave are being recorded from this age group.
So far, a total of 8,081,358 beneficiaries have received the first dose of their vaccine shots across the state and 874,560 have received their second shot.