Maharashtra reported a slight rise in the number of COVID-19 cases on Thursday. 62,194 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, clocking the tally at 49,42,736.
And 853 fatalities were reported; the count now stands at 73,515 deaths. Meanwhile, 63,842 patients have recovered across the state in the last 24 hours, taking the total recovery count to 42,37,940.
Mumbai has witnessed a slight drop in the number of daily cases on Thursday. 3,056 new cases and 69 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the respective counts to 6,68,355 and 13,616 so far. Its doubling rate of cases has increased to 130 days, while its weekly growth rate has dropped to 0.51 per cent.
Dr Tatyarao Lahane, director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), said the deaths will stabilise in the coming days. “Most of these patients have been ill for over two weeks and the treatment was delayed. In addition, many of them had already been suffering from medical complications and the virus made it worse,” said Lahane. “However, the death rate will come down in the coming days as even the new cases are coming down,” he added.
Experts said stringent public health efforts and measures need to continue in the city. “Mumbai needs to do more testing. Identify high-risk contacts and test them so that new cases can be detected quickly and patients can be isolated,” said Dr Rahul Pandit, who heads the ICU department of Fortis Hospital, Mulund, and is a member of the state government's task force.
While the second wave in Mumbai is ebbing, he said the ‘thick tail’ associated with the city's COVID-19 graph is a spot of worry. “We saw the last time as well that the daily caseload doesn’t decline sharply in Mumbai and stays high, though steady, for a long time,” he said.