Cases on decline, lockdown unlikely to be extended
MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Wednesday recorded 34,031 daily infections, pushing the count to 5,467,537. The tally of active cases dipped to 401,695 as 51,457 recoveries were reported in the past 24 hours. Significantly, state health minister Rajesh Tope also hinted that the state may not extend complete lockdown as the situation in the state is improving.
The state saw 594 casualties taking the toll up to 84,371. Kolhapur reported the highest toll with 80 deaths. The district recorded 68 deaths while the city reported 12 fatalities. It was followed by Mumbai and Pune with 57 and 49 casualties respectively.
Dr Rahul Pandit, member of the state task force, said that those who are succumbing to the disease are not new patients and were admitted to hospital at least three weeks ago. He said that the virus is fatal and patients are coming in a critical position. “These are the patients who were admitted almost three weeks ago but could not be recovered and succumbed to the disease. They are not new patients,” Dr Pandit said, who is also director, critical care, Fortis Hospital, Mulund.
After over three months of surge, the daily cases in state have started declining gradually. The situation started changing ever since the state government imposed a complete lockdown on April 22, which has been extended till the early morning of June 1. For the straight six days, Maharashtra is reporting less than 40,000 cases. However, the case fatality rate (CFR) of the state has been on the rise for the first time since July 2020. This is because the state is reporting a significant number of casualties daily.
Till May 19 — 14,462 fatalities have been reported in this month alone, which is record highest in any of the months since March 2020 when Covid-19 hit Maharashtra, according to the statistics provided by the state health department. There are 12 days still left for this month to be completed.
Previously, April had reported the highest number of fatalities — 12,496. On May 19, the case fatality rate (CFR) recorded at 1.54% from 1.49% reported on May 1. In the last three months — February, March and April, CFR were 2.42%, 1.94% and 1.5%. The average daily casualties of this month also reached an all-time high — 770. In April, it was 416.
Four districts — Nanded (9.17%), Nandurbar (7.74%), Hingoli (5.46%) and Bhandara (4.92%) — have reported the highest death rate across the state past week (between May 12-18). Districts having the highest number of casualties are — Mumbai — 14,373, Pune — 8,987, Nagpur — 6,252, Nashik — 3,940 and Solapur — 3532, according to a weekly analysis report the state health department.
Tope said, “Our daily growth rate has also declined to 0.5%.” He also hinted that lockdown restrictions could be eased, subject to the prevailing situation towards the end of the month.