MUMBAI: Maharashtra added a million cases in a span of just 18 days in April, making it the fastest addition to the caseload seen thus far in the pandemic. The previous 10 lakh cases took 124 days, underlining the pace at which the infection has spread in the second wave.
The state had added 5.93 lakh cases during the September peak last year.
On Sunday, Maharashtra saw its highest singleday addition of positive cases ever at 68,631, pushing the state’s overall total to 38,39,338. This was the fourth straight day of the state clocking over 60,000 positive cases. The state has recorded an average of 57,000 cases daily in April.
Over 500 coronavirus deaths were reported on Sunday, the highest single day count in seven months. The 503 fatalities took the state’s cumulative toll to 60,473.
Mumbai’s cases steadied at 8,468 new detections, although for the fifth day the city added over 50 casualties. The city’s total caseload reached 5,79,486 while overall fatalities touched 12,354. Active cases for Maharashtra stood at 6,70,388 on Sunday, and that of Mumbai 86,688. Of the 53 deaths in Mumbai, 26 had comorbidities. As many as 16 deaths occurred in people between 40 and 60 years of age; 35 were above 60.
On a day cabinet minster Aaditya Thackeray of the Shiv Sena, who is also guardian minister of the Mumbai suburban district, said the state had started preparing for the third Covid wave, there was only one ventilator available for Covid patients in the private sector and 18 in the public hospitals in Mumbai.
BMC says cases stabilising, but next two weeks criticalCovid-19 ICU beds in the city were down to 43 on Sunday. Of these, 32 were in public hospitals and 11 in private. Over 3,500 normal beds were available.
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said that simultaneous plans were being drawn up to augment beds in the city and state.
Admitting that the city’s critical bed supply was almost matching up to the demand, additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said that around 80 high definition unit beds will be added in the next few days. “Patients can be stabilised in HDU units and further course of treatment can be decided,” he said.
While cases appear to have stabilised, Kakani said the next two weeks would be critical with the beginning of reverse migration.
Public health minister Rajesh Tope said that patients should consult a doctor as soon as they develop symptoms and not delay getting tested or isolating themselves. He added that the recovery rate in the state had dropped to 80.9%. While there were additions, as many as 45,654 persons also got discharged from various hospitals, taking the count of recovered people to 31,06,828.
As on Sunday, Pune had the highest active cases at 1,22,486, while Thane with 86,732 active cases surpassed Mumbai. Nagpur, one of the worst hit in the second wave, had 73,485 persons under treatment, and Nashik had 42,563. The rest of the districts and cities had fewer than 20,000 active cases. Ahmednagar recorded the highest deaths in a single day at 61 among other districts and corporations.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region crossed 12 lakh cases on Sunday.
Of the 503 deaths reported on Sunday, 210 occurred in the last 48 hours and 128 in the last week. The remaining 165 deaths occurred a week before that. Only eight out of the 61 districts and corporations in the state have recorded zero Covid deaths.