Thursday, March 28, 2024

Silver lining in Maharashtra’s COVID fight? After Mumbai, now Nagpur and Pune see fall in fresh cases

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Express News Service
MUMBAI: After Mumbai, two metro cities Pune and Nagpur are speedily getting better: Covid cases and mortality have dropped significantly in the last few days, as per the Maharashtra health department data.

On May 9, Nagpur city reported 1,784 positive cases and 34 deaths against 4,787 total positive cases and 41 deaths on May 1.

Pune, on May 9 reported 2,110 positive cases and 17 deaths against 4,268 positive cases and 39 deaths on May 1. Both the Pune and Nagpur civic bodies are ruled by the BJP.

It shows the positive cases are coming down significantly in both these major cities.

However, Pune has still the highest active positive cases at 1,00,316 across Maharashtra, while there are 59,444 positive cases in Nagpur.Mumbai, after reporting 11,000 positive cases per day on April 3 this year, has shown its daily positive cases come down to 2,500-3,500 per day this week.

Mumbai has a total of 51,165 active positive cases while there are 38,352 active cases in Thane.

In Pune, of the 9,26,124 positive cases reported since the outbreak of the pandemic, 8,15,701 patients have recovered while there have been 10,049 total deaths.

In Nagpur, there are 4,64,414 positive cases reported since the beginning of the outbreak, out of which, 3,99300 patients recovered and 5,624 people were reported dead.

In Nagpur, Union minister Nitin Gadkar himself stepped in while in Pune, a Mumbai team has been assisting the city to bring down the positivity rate.

Sources said Nitin Gadkari has been monitoring the oxygen supply, the hospital bed situation and ensuring Remdesivir injections are available.

He recently met Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders of Vidarbha and ensured all possible help from the Centre. 

He also warned leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis against venturing out to inaugurate one scheme or the other.

“Self-publicity can wait… leaders should not violate the Covid protocol,” he said.

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is also closely monitoring the situation in Pune. Pawar had roped in the health task force and BMC authorities to implement its model in Pune to contain the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile, a survey by online platform LocalCricles found that as many as 84 per cent of the people in Maharashtra want curfew to continue in the state, while most people also suggest home deliveries of all goods to minimise business disruption and for consumer convenience.

Maharashtra had reported 39,544 cases on March 31.

The state had reported 54,022 cases on May 7, 53,605 on May 8 and 48,401 on May 9.

Of the 549 fatalities, 302 had occurred in the past 48 hours.

While 113 deaths had occurred last week, 134 people had died before the last week, the department said.

On the other hand, 61,607 patients were discharged on Monday, taking the count of recoveries so far in Maharashtra to 44,69,425, it said.

Maharashtra is now left with 5,90,818 active cases.

Mumbai saw 1,782 new cases, taking the tally to 6,77,412 while the overall fatality count stood at 13,855, the department said.

The Pune circle, which covers Solapur and Satara districts besides Pune, reported the highest 8,120 cases in the day in the state, followed by 7,151 new infections in the Nashik circle.

The Nagpur circle and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), which covers the city of Mumbai and Thane, recorded 5,012 and 4,883 new cases, respectively.

The MMR has so far recorded 14,51,787 COVID-19 cases and 24,863 deaths.

Ahmednagar district (barring Ahmednagar city) in the Nashik circle reported 3,533 new cases.

Pune district (except areas covered by Pune city) recorded 2,300 new cases.

Maharashtra’s case recovery rate now stands at 86.97 per cent, while the fatality rate is 1.49 per cent, the government said.

Currently, 36,70,320 people are in home quarantine and 26,664 are in institutional quarantine in the state.

With 1,92,330 new tests on Monday, the number of samples tested so far in Maharashtra increased to 2,96,31,127, the government said.

Maharashtra’s COVID-19 tally is as follows: Positive cases: 51,38,973; new cases 37,236; deaths: 76,398; discharged 44,69,425; active cases: 5,90,818; people tested so far: 2,96,31,127.

Recoveries continue to outnumber fresh cases in Mumbai

Mumbai on Monday recorded a steep drop in new coronavirus cases at 1,794, the lowest single-day count in nearly two months, while 74 patients succumbed to the infection, the city civic body said.

With the addition of 1,794 new coronavirus infections and 74 fresh fatalities, the financial capital’s cumulative caseload rose to 6,78,269 and the toll to 13,891, according to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) updated data.

After a gap of 54 days, Mumbai has logged less than 2,000 COVID-19 cases in a day.

Earlier on March 16, the metropolis had witnessed 1,922 new cases.

Also, for the 10th day in a row, Mumbai’s daily COVID-19 case count remained below the 4,000-mark though the number of fatalities has fluctuated between 62 and 90 during the period.

Fewer coronavirus tests over the weekend could have led to a significant drop in the number of new infections.

According to the BMC, 23,061 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, taking the number of samples examined so far to 57,33,431.

Mumbai reported 609 less new infections, but half a dozen more fatalities as compared to Sunday, when it had reported 2,403 cases and 68 fatalities.

As per the BMC, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Mumbai has gone down to 45,534.

In the last 24 hours, 3,580 patients were discharged from hospitals, pushing the number of recovered cases to 6,16,998, according to the BMC data.

Mumbai’s COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 91 per cent.

As per the BMC, the city’s average growth rate of COVID-19 cases for the period May 3 and May 9 was 0.41 per cent, while the case doubling rate was 163 days.

According to the civic body, Mumbai has 87 active containment zones in slums and ‘chawls’ (old row tenements), while 493 buildings have been sealed after a certain number of their residents tested positive for coronavirus.

The number of sealed buildings has gone down below 500 after a gap of more than a month.

Mumbai had reported the highest-ever 11,163 new COVID-19 cases on April 4, whereas during the second wave the highest single-day fatalities – at 90- were recorded on May 1, 2021.

Mumbai has been registering a steady drop in daily cases, earning praise from the Supreme Court for its COVID-19 management.

Free treatment for Mucormycosis patients under Maharashtra scheme

Patients of Mucormycosis, a serious but rare fungal infection now affecting those suffering from coronavirus, will be treated for free under the Maharashtra governments flagship medical insurance scheme, Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Monday.

Mucormycosis patients will be covered under the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana since the medicines required to combat the fungal infection are expensive, an official statement quoted Tope as saying.

According to the statement, he said patients will be treated free of cost at 1,000 hospitals covered under the health scheme.

The minister said symptoms of the disease are being seen in those COVID-19 patients who are diabetic and whose diabetes is not under control.

The statement said Tope made the comments while interacting with media persons in Jalna in central Maharashtra.

The medicines of the disease are expensive.

Hence, patients hit by the disease will be treated for free at 1,000 hospitals covered under the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana, Tope said.

The minister said there are complaints about the injections used for treating Mucormycosis patients being sold at higher than actual price and added their rates will be capped.

Tope said COVID-19 patients should not panic after contracting Mucormycosis and focus on controlling diabetes.

Symptoms of Mucormycosis include headache, fever, pain under the eyes, nasal or sinus congestion and partial loss of vision.

The minister said the government will undertake a campaign to spread awareness among people about the fungal infection.

(With PTI Inputs)

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