As a silver lining to Maharashtra’s COVID-19 containment strategies, the state witnessed a nearly 87 per cent rise in patients who have recovered in the last one month. The overall recovery rate of the state is now 72.21 per cent. State and health officials have attributed this surge to aggressive surveillance and testing through which they were able to identify positive cases at the earliest.
According to the data provided by the state Health Department, 8,57,933 patients have recovered compared to 4,59,124 reported until August 20, which means an average of 13,294 patients were recovering on a daily basis in the last month. Of the total recovered patients, 40 per cent cases are from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). “Despite there being a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases, an equal number of patients have also recovered in the state. In the last 20 days, more than 3 lakh patients have recovered compared to the total number of patients who recovered in the month of August,” said an official.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra has the highest number of recovered patients compared to the other states in India. Currently, 8,57,933 patients have recovered in Maharashtra, followed by Andhra Pradesh (5,30711), Karnataka (4,04,841), Tamil Nadu (4,81,273) and Uttar Pradesh (2,76,690).
Senior health officials said they can achieve this target as more people are coming forward to undergo treatment immediately on displaying COVID-19 symptoms. However, still there are 15 per cent to 20 per cent of citizens, who because of the associated stigma, delay their treatment. “State-led focussed, calibrated, responsive and effective measures of early identification through high and aggressive testing, prompt surveillance and tracking coupled with standardised high-quality clinical care have brought about this achievement,” he said.
Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said Mumbai, currently, has more than 70 per cent asymptomatic patients and nearly 24 per cent symptomatic patients. Only three or four per cent are serious and need ventilators or ICU beds. The overall recovery rate of the city is 78.41 per cent, which is higher compared to the state recovery rate of 72.21 per cent. “We have taken several measures to curb the spread of the virus in the city, which includes aggressive testing, increased contact tracing and immediate treatment if patients show any symptoms. All these have helped us save many lives during this pandemic. Moreover, we are administering serious patients with life saving drugs that have yielded good results,” he said.
