Maharashtra on Friday reported as many as 2,779 new COVID-19 cases and 50 pandemic deaths, pushing the number of positive cases to 20,03,657 and total deaths to 50,784 so far. As many as 3,419 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours, increasing the number of recoveries to 19,06,827.
Mumbai reported less than 500 cases on Friday, with the city reporting 483 new infections and nine COVID-19 deaths being recorded in the last 24 hours, taking the total cases to 3,05,132 and 11,285 fatalities till now.
Experts said they were worried over citizens not following COVID-19 appropriate behaviour as the impact of vaccination, which started on Saturday, will start showing only after months.
Meanwhile, a comparative analysis of figures also showed a decline in the average number of daily cases in Maharashtra. In November, the average was 4,775, which fell to 3,892 in December and in January, as of Thursday, it dropped further to 3,174.
Dr Subhash Salunkhe, who chairs the Maharashtra communicable diseases prevention and control technical committee, said, “Although we are getting fewer daily cases, the number of active infections is still quite high. It simply means we need to be more careful because the situation is not what we anticipate,” he said.
Starting a vaccination drive does not mean that cases will start going down. It will happen only when common people start getting immunised, which is still far away. The next few months, healthcare providers and frontline workers are going to be vaccinated,” he added.
Dr Rahul Pandit, member of the state-appointed task force for the clinical management of critical patients, said, “I agree the situation [Covid-19 cases] is not improving, but the position we are in is better than before. It is going to take some more time before we have full control of the situation. The vaccination drive, as it reaches the common people, will start showing positive effects,” he added.
