Maha sees 28K new Covid cases
MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Tuesday reported 28,438 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the tally to 5,433,506. The daily positivity rate in the state is on a constant decline since May 8, showing a drop in viral activity. However, health experts said some districts still show high positivity rate, while some have shown a sharp dip.
Mumbai reported under-1,000 cases after 77 days with 961 fresh cases on Tuesday. The city’s low numbers are due to a drop in testing on Monday, due to cyclone Tauktae that brushed past the city on Monday. The city’s death toll rose by 44, taking it to 14,316, while its active case load came down to 31,790.
The state’s active caseload reduced to 419,727, while the death toll rose to 83,777 with 679 fatalities on Tuesday. With the data reconciliation, 612 deaths have been added to the cumulative death tally, the state health department said.
A chunk of the fatalities reported on Tuesday came from Kolhapur which reported 130 deaths (115 in rural Kolhapur, 15 in Kolhapur city), in the past 24 hours. Vasai-virar, on the outskirts of Mumbai, reported 58 deaths. Satara reported 34 deaths, while Beed saw 27 fatalities. Of the 679 deaths reported on Tuesday, 422 occurred in the past 48 hours and 257 in the past week. In the past 24 hours, the state tested 250,310 samples and had a positivity rate of 11.36%. Since May 8, the daily positivity rate in the state has seen a consistent drop from 22.56% to 11.35% on May 17. On Tuesday, the state saw a marginal increase. In the first week of May, the daily positivity rate swung between 22.97% (May 3) and 20.64% (May 5).
The overall positivity rate in the state stood at 17.2%, which means for every 100 samples tested the state records 17 positive cases. The overall positivity rate in the state too has shown a decline since April when it was 27.5% on April 6.
Health experts and state health department officials said the decline is a positive sign for the state, however, it will take three weeks more for some “normalcy” to return. Dr Subhash Salunkhe, former director-general of health services and advisor to the state on Covid-19, said that while the state’s positivity is reducing, some districts are still not. “Some districts like Mumbai, Thane and Pune are showing sharp decline in positivity rate, but there are many districts which are not showing a downward trend yet,” Salunkhe said.
According to state health department officials, districts such as Satara, Sangli, Sindhudurg, Buldhana, Kolhapur, Beed and Ahmednagar still show viral activity. “These districts are recording higher cases and have high positivity rate. While the overall rate is witnessing a drop, it will take two-three weeks to regain normalcy. The viral activity will go on for that period, so we cannot let our guard down,” the officer said, who did not wish to be named.
On Monday, Kolhapur district saw 1,501 fresh cases, while Ahmednagar saw 2,045 new cases. Beed saw 1,295 fresh Covid cases and Amravati district saw 1,041. Satara saw 1,270 new cases, while Sangli district saw 1905 new cases. Over 80% of the new cases from these districts are from the rural part of the districts, while the urban areas are not reporting as many cases, data showed.