Maharashtra sees 920 deaths in a day

MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Wednesday breached the 900 death mark for the second time, since the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus last year.

On Wednesday, the state recorded 57,640 new Covid-19 cases with 920 deaths. The highest number of deaths in a single day was on April 28 when 985 people had succumbed to Covid-19. The total number of deaths in the state has now reached 72,662, with Mumbai topping the list with 13,511 deaths, followed by 9,863 in Pune. The state currently has 641,596 active cases in which Pune tops with 1,14,254 cases followed by Nagpur with 58,944 cases.

Deaths may come down

Dr Tatyarao Lahane, director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), said the death toll will stabilise in the coming days. “Most of these patients have been ill for over two weeks and there was a delay in treatment. In addition, many of them had already been suffering from medical complications and the virus made it worse. However, the death rate will come down in the coming days as the number of new cases have dipped,” he added.

According to Dr Jeevan Jain, a leading physician from Lalbaug, the current strain of Covid-19 is highly infective and lethal compared to the first wave.

“In the second wave, we are seeing the new variant of Covid-19 directly affecting the lungs, which was not the case last year. This is proving to be fatal. Last year, the fever hardly exceeded 100 degree Fahrenheit. The range of fever now goes up to 103-104 degree Fahrenheit,” said Jain, who has treated more than 15,000 Covid-19 patients to date.

Become self-reliant in oxygen supply: CM

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said he has asked the administration to ensure that the state becomes self-reliant in oxygen supply by increasing the manufacturing to 1,800 metric tones.

Maharashtra daily needs 1,800 metric tonnes (MT) of oxygen. The state has been able to get 1,848 MT of oxygen, of which 1,295 MT is being arranged by the state, while 500 MT is procured from outside. The rest 53 MT is being produced from the 38 pressure swing absorbing (PSA) plants. The state has given a go-ahead to start 382 PSA plants which would produce 240 MT of oxygen informed the CMO.

These plants are being constructed on a war footing and would be operational by June end. The state would also enhance the production of liquid medical oxygen.

He said the installation of such plants will be given a green signal. This will boost the oxygen supply by another 300 MT.

The state has asked the Centre to hike its allocation by 200 MT from outside the state from Jamnagar in Gujarat and Bhilai in Chhatisgarh.

Meanwhile, CMO also said that the Central government has from April 21 to May 4 has dispatched 4,74,791 doses of Remdesivir injection which is 59% of its agreed quota. The state is distributing the same across all regions.

The state has also floated global tenders to procure them.

Commotion over vaccine

The police personnel lathicharged at the agitated citizens who had come to vaccinate themselves at Parli in Beed district. There were 30 doses of vaccine available, while hundreds of citizens had lined up outside the centre. The shortage of doses infuriated people. They even pushed the deputy superintendent of police (DYSP) Santosh Walke who had gone to pacify the crowd. This act infuriated the policemen who took to lathi charging. Police have also arrested six people.

Leakage in oxygen tanker

A leakage was reported in the oxygen tanker along the Punebengaluru highway. This tanker was proceeding towards Kolhapur and the leakages continued for more than half an hour before officials stepped in to plug the same. In Nagpur, 25 minibuses are converted to ambulances.