Recoveries cross 50k in Maharashtra

MUMBAI: The number of recovered Covid-19 patients in Maharashtra crossed 50,000 on Sunday as the state health minister said the infection peak had begun and local authorities pushed for a limited resumption of local train services in Mumbai.

Officials said 1,632 patients recovered and were discharged from various hospitals across the state on Sunday, taking the total number of recovered patients to 50,978. The case tally stood at 107,958 with 3,390 infections recorded on Sunday. This was the fifth consecutive day when more than 3,000 cases were reported. The state reported 120 deaths, taking toll to 3,950.

But state health minister Rajesh Tope held out hope. He said that the Covid-19 peak has started in the state and that cases would continue to rise for the next 15 days. “The decline is likely to start from June end. I’m saying this going by what is happening in other countries. The situation in the state will stabilise and we will be able to settle down things,” he added.

Health officials say that the situation was improving as the growth rate of new cases was decreasing and the doubling rate of new cases was increasing.

“We can say that the rate of growth of new cases has considerably slowed down and our case doubling rate is now better than the national average. Daily new cases in Mumbai is almost constant in the last last seven days,” said Dr Pradeep Vyas, principal secretary, health department.

The doubling rate, the number of days it takes for cases on a given date to double, in Maharashtra currently is 21.3 days of the state whereas the national average is 17.1 days.