Maha sees 6,126 new Covid cases, 195 deaths
MUMBAI: Keeping its trend of daily caseload, Maharashtra on Wednesday recorded 6,126 new Covid-19 cases, taking the tally to 6,327,194 and the death toll to 133,410 with 195 fresh deaths. The state has 72,810 active patients, of which Pune tops with 15,216 patients, followed by Thane with 5,984 and Mumbai with 5,034 patients. Around 447,681 people are under home quarantine, while 2,928 are in institutional quarantine.
The daily test positivity rate on Wednesday was 2.89% as 6,126 of 211,678 tests were declared positive.
As part of its Mission Begin Again, the state government has started rolling out relaxations from the curbs imposed for the past four months. Barring 11 districts with the high positivity and growth rate, the relaxations have come into effect from Tuesday.
As of August 1, the number of active patients in Maharashtra was 78,962, while 32,380 patients are admitted to various hospitals.
Amid the relaxations, the state government is apprehensive about the possibility of rise in daily caseload due to crowding at public places.
“It has been witnessed that whenever we open up the activities, the number of cases start increasing in a week. After opening up the local trains for all in
MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Region) on February 1, the daily caseload in MMR started surging from mid-february. Though the crowding at public places is witnessed rampantly by violating the curbs, the relaxations rolled out will result in more crowding, leading to rise in infection,” said an official from the health department.
Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope said, “Positivity rate in districts like Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur and Pune is too high compared to the state average, and in some districts, it is around 9%. We have directed them to follow protocols related to tracing, testing of high- and low-risk contacts to keep the spread in check. The recent flooding in these districts had affected isolation, but the situation is now coming to normal. We have also directed these administrations to increase the rate of vaccination so that herd immunity is achieved soon,” Tope said. He added that districts have been directed to ensure that Covid-appropriate behaviour is maintained after rolling out the relaxations.
“We are apprehensive about rise in the cases as the festive season is approaching,” he said. Meanwhile, Mumbai saw 359 new cases and nine deaths, taking the tally to 736,016 and toll to 15,920. Pune (1,014), Sangli (783), Kolhapur (412), Ratnagiri (212) reported more cases on Wednesday.