Study shows rural Maharashtra suffering more in onslaught of COVID second wave

Express News Service
MUMBAI: A weekly Maharashtra government report on the prevalence of Covid-19 has revealed that positivity and mortality rates are higher in the state’s rural districts than in big cities such as Mumbai and Pune. In Maharashtra, the highest weekly positivity rate of Covid-19 is in Osmanabad (39.25%) followed by Parbhani and Hingoli (36.78% and 36.70% respectively). Pune’s positivity rate is 30.43% while Nagpur’s positivity rate is 35.02%.

The average positivity rate of Maharashtra was 25.17% from April 11 to 17. Most rural districts are included in the highest weekly positivity rates across the state. These include Jalna, Beed, Nandurbar, Nasik, Latur, Gondhia, Ahmednagar, Palghar, and Ratnagiri districts. The weekly report also revealed that the growth of Covid positive cases is more in the second wave than in the first wave. The first Covid wave in Mumbai saw 34,259 total active positive patients.

In the second wave so far, the number stands at a staggering 85,221 — 249% growth. In Jalna, this growth is 345%. Beed, Latur and Parbhani witnessed 347%, 398% and 798% growth respectively from the first wave. “The cases suddenly started rising in the Vidarbha and Marathwada region and later spread across Maharashtra. No one had gauged the seriousness of the situation in the second wave. It caught everyone, including health experts, off guard. In April, it turned out to be a Covid tsunami,” said a government official.

He said in February and March, people did not follow the Covid 19 norms and started attending weddings and other social and cultural functions in large numbers. “The virus spread rapidly in a short period and now we have a shortage of beds, Remdesivir doses and oxygen,” said the official.

NCP minister Nawab Malik said for the last 10 days, the state’s positive cases have hovered between 60,000 and 67,000 while in other states, there is a steep rise. “We are confident of the Covid curve flattening soon in Maharashtra. We hope by April-end, things will be much better with more vaccinations and better health infrastructure,” he said.