Covid-19...

“Numbers [cases] are definitely high, but the rise in daily cases is in proportion with the number of tests. Due to more tests, we are getting more cases,” said a senior official from the public health department. “More importantly, active cases are around 27% of the total cases detected so far. Of them, 96% patients are asymptomatic, which means they are completely stable. Another one per cent patients need oxygen support and only 3% patients are in critical condition.”

Dr Sanjay Pattiwar, public health expert, said the rise in cases is certainly because of more number of tests, but the spread in cases should not extend geographically. “It is a fact that increased number of tests will increase the output, but the spread in cases should not extend geographically in new areas and localities, which is currently happening,” said Dr Pattiwar, adding that 95% patients will recover. “The problem is of 3%-5% patients who are critical and the government is falling short of highly skilled doctors and kind of health infrastructure needed to deal with such a situation,” he said.

Mumbai, meanwhile, maintained its average daily case count, as it recorded 979 infections on Friday. The city’s tally stands at 128,535, of which 19,337 are active cases. Mumbai had reported its highest single-day spike of 2,077 cases on June 27.

The city’s toll, however, crossed the7,000-mark after 47 fatalities were reported on Friday, taking the death count to 7,038.

There was a projection that cases will rise in August, which is proving right for Maharashtra. State health minister Rajesh Tope, too, had said cases will rise till mid-august after which the state will hit a plateau. “In my view, the peak has arrived and the cases will continue to rise by another 15 days. We are expecting plateau or flattening of the curve somewhere around August 15. Once we hit the plateau, cases will start declining,” Tope had said.

Pune City, meanwhile, continue to contribute maximum infections in the state’s daily caseload as it recorded 1,192 cases on Friday. Its tally stands at 76,645. Pimpri-chinchwad, a satellite city of the Pune Metropolitan Region, recorded 906 cases, third highest rise in the state.

The high fatalities is also a cause for concern for Maharashtra, as the state has recorded 4,433 deaths in the past 14 days as against 6,988 deaths in July, 5,638 in June, 2,286 deaths in May, 449 in April and 10 deaths in March. Maharashtra has highest number of Covid-19 deaths across in the country.

The case fatality rate (CFR) of the state stands at 3.39% (on Friday), second highest in the country after Gujarat, where the CFR was 3.62% with 2,731 deaths (75,408 cases) till Thursday, according to the statistics shared by the state medical education department.