Maharashtra and Mumbai recorded their highest one day jump of 23,816 and 2,227 new cases being recorded on Wednesday, respectively. This took their overall count to 9,67,349 and 1,60,744, respectively. Their previous highest were 23,350 and 2,077, which were reported on September 5 and June 27.
“Today’s cases will reduce after reconciling duplicates and out of Mumbai cases. Due to reconciliation, 239 duplicate cases are removed from the progressive positive cases,” said BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 death toll in Maharashtra has increased to 27,787, with 380 fatalities being recorded on Wednesday. Of the total deaths, 237 are from the last 48 hours and 55 are from last week and 88 deaths are from the period before last week. The city death toll has increased to 7,982, with 43 deaths being recorded in the last 24 hours.
Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner in charge of the Health Department, said, “The increase in the number of active COVID-19 cases is a result of our recent unlock plans, Ganeshotsav, and also because of the shift in the spread of the virus from slums to high-rises. As more affluent people are now turning positive, the rate of self admission in private hospitals has increased and these residents are opting to prolong their treatment in a private hospital.”
Dr Shashank Joshi, a member of the Maharashtra government task force formed in April to reduce the mortality rate in the state, said it is not a good sign for Mumbai, especially since it has opened up considerably. If this trend continues, COVID-19 cases could increase at an alarming rate again and the city may have to tighten its lockdown yet again. “One of the main reasons for the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases is lack of virus-related hygiene, arising from ‘COVID-19 fatigue’ among citizens. Yet another reason is the lack of faith in the civic body. Many people do not want to shift to institutional quarantine facilities. Therefore, they do not test until the fourth or fifth day after they display symptoms. In such cases, they interact with a lot more people and the infection rapidly spreads,” he said.
So far, a total of 48.83 lakh tests have been conducted in the state, of which nearly 19.81 per cent were positive. There are 16.11 lakh people in home quarantine and over 37,644 in institutional quarantine.
