92K COVID CASES RECORDED IN JAN: MAHA DATA

MUMBAI: Maharashtra recorded 2,585 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, pushing case count to 2,026,399. It has been 329 days since the first case was detected in the state on March 9 last year. Death toll reached 51,062 with 40 fatalities reported on Sunday.

A comparative analysis of the figures of the past two months indicates a decline in daily cases with 92,177 cases registered in January, which is much less than December and November where 120,664 and 143,262 cases were recorded respectively, according to the figures provided by the state health department.

Of the fatalities recorded on Sunday, 15 occurred in the past 48 hours, nine in the past week while the rest are from the period before last week.

Though fresh cases have hit a plateau in the past few months, the state still has 45,071 active cases, which means these many patients are still taking treatment at various hospitals and facilities across Maharashtra. Despite the number of new cases not rising, cases are also not coming down as expected.

Experts are not comfortable with the overall progress, saying that the state is still in a dangerous situation as cases are not going down. They further warned that this situation may change for the worse as people have become careless about following Covid-appropriate behaviour.

Dr Subhash Salunkhe, chairman, communicable diseases prevention control and technical committee of the state, said the picture is hopeful but no decline in cases also indicates that the state is yet to come out of danger. “Daily cases are hovering close to 3,000 since the past many days. The picture is hopeful. However, it also shows that we are still in a danger zone because the virus activity is stabilised, but cases are not reducing. We were expecting a decline and would be out of danger only if it starts happening,” Dr Salunkhe said.

He said the people are not maintaining Covid-appropriate behaviour, which is a matter of concern. “Covid-appropriate behaviour is needed much more now, because we have removed most of the restrictions. From Monday, local train services will resume for the general public. Countries such as Brazil and other European countries where people became complacent are again in lockdown. We are fortunate that we do not have the danger of mutation as of now, but if the situation goes otherwise then we will have to bring back restrictions,” he said.

Mumbai clocked 483 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, taking case count to 308,975. Active cases stood at 5,800. There were seven deaths reported, pushing the toll in the city to 11,352.