Maharashtra: Month ends with the highest Covid case addition in 30-day period

MUMBAI: April ended on a worrying note for Maharashtra with 17.8 lakh new Covid-19 cases and 13,835 deaths, highest monthly addition so far.
Mumbai alone accounted for 2.3 lakh cases and 1,479 deaths. Though infections recorded in April were the highest since the beginning of the pandemic, the city's deadliest month continues to be June and July 2020 when 3,277 and 1,797 fatalities were registered respectively.
The state reported a dip in daily detections on Friday adding 62,919 cases, taking total caseload to 46 lakh. Deaths reported were 828, taking total tally to 68,813. Daily Case Fatality Rate (CFR) has been more than 1% for the last six days. Monthly CFR for April was 0.7% against 0.3% in March.
Even in Mumbai, death rate in the last week of April crossed 1% and may continue to remain high for a longer time. Civic officials said some unreported deaths could be added to the city's tally. In terms of cases, there has been a 158% jump in the city in April (2.3 lakh) compared to March (88,856). The silver lining though has been the drop in positivity rate to 10% and daily burden of cases.
Dr Rahul Pandit, an intensivist and member of the Covid taskforce, said Mumbai is very much still in the centre of the second wave. “Let’s not start self-congratulating ourselves yet. We may have plateaued, but we must continue testing, tracing and treating. In addition, we have to start preparing for the third wave in terms of ensuring availability of oxygen and medicines,” he said. Globally, the third wave appear to be smaller than the second one, but one really can’t predict, he said.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray too said the state was preparing for a possible third wave and while strict lockdown-like restrictions have been imposed the state is continuously working towards adding more beds, ramping up oxygen supply and even adding more testing capacity.
"Experts have cited a possibility of a third wave and we should prepare for it. We want to ensure that if we have to shut down again during the third wave, we want to ensure that there is least economic impact," said Thackeray. Meanwhile, at the state level, Pune circle added 15,260 cases and 220 deaths, the highest in the state. With cases continuing to rise in the MMR region, Mira-Bhayander issued fresh lockdown orders: All shops, vegetable and fruits markets are to be shut on the weekends starting Saturday till further orders. All civic markets and sale of vegetables/fruit in housing societies will be barred for five days starting Saturday.
(With inputs by Sandhya Nair)