Case spike in rural areas catches state’s eye; tally rises to 104,568 STATE GOVT CAPS PRICE OF COVID TESTS AT ₹2,200

MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Saturday reported 3,427 more infections to take the tally to 1,04,568, as the government looks at strengthening its focus on rural areas after a spike in numbers.The state, which had breached the 1 lakh-cases mark on Friday, has recorded over 3,000 fresh infections for four consecutive days.

With 113 more deaths, the state toll reached 3,830, although 73 of them were from the past two days, while the remaining casualties were between May 27 and June 10.

Mumbai, the worst-affected Indian city, saw 1,380 new infections and 69 more deaths, taking the tally and toll to 56,831 and 2,113 respectively. Over the past week, the state has recorded 21,600 cases and 861 deaths – an average of 3,086 cases and 123 deaths per day — till Saturday. Saturday saw the third highest single-day jump in cases.

Meanwhile, even as Mumbai could restrict the virus spread to some extent, the spike in caseload in rural parts and districts like Solapur, Aurangabad, Yavatmal and Jalgaon remained a cause of concern for the state administration. The district administrations have been directed to ramp up health infrastructure, so as to contain the spread.

While Mumbai’s daily rise in cases dropped in comparison to the overall state figures over the past three weeks, a few districts like Solapur, Aurangabad, Jalgaon, Akola and Dhule have registered a sharp growth in the past three weeks.

Solapur’s case count rose to 1,620 on Friday from 522 on May 21, a day before the lockdown was relaxed substantially by reducing areas under red zones. Aurangabad’s tally rose to 1,126 from 457 on May 21, while Jalgaon’s count went up to 1,540 from 331. In Akola and Dhule, the numbers rose to 979 and 353 from 344 and 95 respectively.

Mumbai accounted for 63.73% of the state’s new cases on May 14, 56.47% on May 28, 49.06% on June 4 and 39.10% on Friday.

MUMBAI: The state government on Saturday capped the price for Covid-19 tests (RT-PCR) in private laboratories at ₹2,200, down from the existing maximum price of ₹4,500. The charge can go up to ₹2,800 in case of home swab collection and delivering reports home.

State health minister Rajesh Tope announced the decision after a committee of senior health department officials submitted a report. Tope said the price of the test in Maharashtra, the worsthit state , is now the lowest in the country. The minister said that against the backdrop of testing being done in large numbers and the drop in prices of kits , the decision to reduce the prices of the tests was justified. He said that the four-member committee had given its recommendation for the revision in prices after analysing every aspect related to the cost incurred for the test.

“Maharashtra has conducted the highest number of tests and the count is more than 6.25 lakh tests from 95 laboratories, including 42 private laboratories, across the state. The ICMR protocol for RT-PCR tests remains the same and there would be no compromise on quality. This has been another decision in the interest of the public and in the direction of curbing profiteering,” Tope said.