There has been a marginal rise in the daily Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra on Sunday, with the state reporting 26,672 new infections and 594 Covid deaths in the last 24 hours. Now, the total positive cases rose to 55,79,897 and 88,620 people died of the disease.
The recovery rate in the state has touched 92 per cent, with 29,177 being discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the total count of recoveries to 51,40,272 since the pandemic started.
Mumbai, meanwhile, reported 1,431 new infections and 49 Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, increasing the total count to 6,97,810, with 14,623 fatalities so far. Moreover, the doubling rate has now increased to 331 days, while the weekly growth rate has dropped to 0.20 per cent.
BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said the corporation plans to adopt a wait and watch policy now. “Mumbai’s positivity rate has been reducing. However, we have to watch the rate of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) before we take any decision about easing restrictions after June 1,” said Kakani.
Health experts and state health department officials said the decline is a positive sign for the state, however, it will take three weeks more for some “normalcy” to return.
Dr Subhash Salunkhe, former director-general of health services and advisor to the state on Covid-19, said that while the state’s positivity is reducing, some districts are still not. “Some districts like Mumbai, Thane and Pune are showing a sharp decline in positivity rate, but there are many districts which are not showing a downward trend yet,” he said.
Dr Pradeep Awate, who heads the epidemiology cell of the state Public Health Department, said the positivity rate has been declining ‘quickly’ in Maharashtra. “We prefer to check the positivity rate for over a week, as the daily rate could be affected by low testing numbers over the weekend. Having said this, the positivity rate in the state is dropping fast. From 25.2 per cent a month ago, we are down to 14 per cent this week,” he said. He expects the steep decline to continue.
“We are likely to drop to 8 per cent in a week’s time and to the magical number of 5 per cent by the end of the month,” he added.
