There was a marginal rise in the daily Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra on Thursday with the state reporting 15,229 new infections and 307 Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing its total cases to 57,91,413 and deaths at 97,394 till now.
Meanwhile, the recovery rate has touched 94.73 per cent, with 54,86,206 patients recovered since the pandemic outbreak.
Mumbai, meanwhile, continued to report less than 1,000 for the fourth day in a row, with 961 new cases and 27 Covid fatalities being reported on Thursday, taking the total count to 7,08,968 with 14,965 deaths so far. The doubling rate has increased to 500 days, while the weekly growth rate has dropped to 0.13 per cent.
State health officials said parameters including weekly growth rate and weekly positivity rate will be considered while giving relaxation in certain areas. The general idea is to go slow with the unlocking as many districts have a high positivity rate. The chief minister does not want to open activities in one go as it would waste the effort to control the spread of coronavirus in the state.
“As unlocking will be gradual, he wants more people to get at least one shot of the Covid vaccine. Many options are being looked into. Travel of people will continue to be regulated and work from home will continue to be encouraged,” said a senior health official.
Dr Rahul Pandit, state Covid task force member and Director-Critical Care, Fortis Hospitals, Mumbai, said, “the overall situation in the state has improved, however, there are some districts that continue to show red flags. So, the unlocking will have to be done accordingly.”
