Maharashtra on Thursday recorded 4,496 new infections and 122 Covid-19 fatalities were recorded, increasing the total count to 17,36,329 with 45,682 deaths so far. However, the total number of recovered patients has increased to 16,05,064, with 7,809 patients recovering from the infections and have been discharged across the state.
Mumbai, meanwhile witnessed slight drop in the daily cases on Thursday, with 858 new cases and 19 fatalities, taking the total count to 2,67,604, with 10,522 deaths till now. Meanwhile, the doubling rate has now increased to 240 days, while weekly growth rate has reduced to 0.29 percent.
Anticipating a second wave, state authorities have been directed to gear up the augmentation of health infrastructure. “Except school-colleges and religious places, there will be no more activities opened up. Though the state government has asked railways to keep their plan ready for operations of local trains for the general public, we are not pushing to begin them immediately. We will allow students to travel in trains after Diwali, but the decision to open for all in non-peak hours will depend on cases 10 days after Diwali,” said an official.
Mumbai is seeing a near doubling of daily Covid-19 cases. After reporting around 500 on Monday and Tuesday, the tally jumped to 1,069 on Wednesday. BMC’s additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said the spike was due to increased testing. “If daily cases cross 2,000, that would be something to worry about, but so far the cases are under control in the city. We urge citizens to follow basic protocols to avoid any infections during Diwali and winter,” he said.
Dr Sanjay Oak, head of the state’s Covid-19 taskforce, cautioned that the threat has far from dimmed. “If people keep visiting their friends and relatives during Diwali without following masking and hygiene protocols, they will also end up sharing the virus apart from chakli and laddoos,” he said.
