Maharashtra deaths drop & cases fall to 56-day low, but tests fewer

MUMBAI: The state and the city marked significant drops in daily Covid case detections as well as fatalities on Monday, but, as is usual on Sundays, testing was much thinner.

Maharashtra reported 26,616 cases, the lowest in 56 days since March 22 (24,645) and added 516 fatalities, down nearly 50% from 974 on Sunday. However, in the last 24 hours, the state ran 2.3 lakh tests, down from the average 2.5 lakh tests on weekdays.
In the city, 1,232 cases were detected, the lowest since March 9 (1,012 cases). Deaths fell to 48 from 60 on Sunday. However, nearly 17,500 tests were run on Sunday, much lower than the average 25,000 tests it has been conducting since last week.
Dr Shashank Joshi, a member of the state task force, said Mumbai is seeing isolated drops, where the cases are dropping dramatically on certain days to rise again marginally with testing. “There is no doubt of an improvement in the situation, but the test positivity rate has stagnated. We would like to see it drop under 5%. We have seen in the first wave that after a certain threshold, Covid is endemic in the city. When all of India was seeing a decline in cases, Mumbai was still reporting 400-500 cases,” he said.
The city needs to stabilise testing and increase it even, said another task force member Dr Rahul Pandit. “’Testing, testing and testing’ is at the centre of Covid control. It has been swinging between 20,000 and 40,000,” he said.
In the city, the weekly growth rate of cases in the week that ended on Sunday was 0.28%. At its peak in early April, the city’s weekly growth rate had touched 2%.
On Monday, the city’s 48 fatalities took the overall mortality count to 14,272. The lingering high mortality burden has been a concern. For instance, exactly a month ago, the city had reported 56 deaths but 8,834 cases. On Monday though, while cases had dropped to 1,232, deaths have remained nearly as much.
In a worrying sign, many smaller districts like Solapur and Kolhapur have reported more fatalities than Mumbai. Solapur reported 49 deaths while Kolhapur reported 83. “Even though cases are dipping, deaths will continue to be high for a few more weeks,” said a state official.