Mumbai: Maharashtra on Friday added 15,591 new infections and 424 Covid-19 deaths, increasing the total count to 14,16,513, with 37,480 fatalities till now. The latest 100,000 cases came in six days, indicating a drop in new infections after the state had moved from 1,100,000 to 1,200,000 in four days and then to 1,300,000 in five days.
Meanwhile, Mumbai reported 2,440 new cases and 42 fatalities on Friday, taking the tally to 2,09,934 and toll to 9,011. So far the city has 28,472 active cases. Till now 1,72,036 have been discharged, with 1,358 being recovered in the last 24 hours.
Of the 424 fatalities, 272 were from the past 48 hours, 65 were from last week and the remaining 85 were from the period before. Of the total deaths, 161 occurred in the MMR, followed by 108 in Pune, 45 in Nagpur, 36 in Nashik, 35 in Kolhapur, 21 in Latur, nine in Aurangabad and seven in Akola, while two deaths were from other states.
Dr Sadhana Tayade, director, directorate, health services, said that they expect the positivity rate to fall in next few weeks once the tests are increased. Moreover, their aim is to reduce the mortality rate below 1% and the positivity below 10%. It is true that we have brought the CFR below 2%, but the positivity rate is still high. Until we are tracing the people and keeping the mortality in check, the positivity rate should not be a matter of worry.
“We are aiming to increase the number of tests by double in the coming weeks and expect the positivity rate to come under control very soon. Though the effect of My Family, My Responsibility drive has not been assessed yet, we expect it to help up detecting the infection early and treating them,” she said.
So far, a total of 69.90 lakh tests have been conducted in the state, of which nearly 20.69 per cent were positive. There are 21.94lakh people in-home quarantine and over 29,051 in institutional quarantine.
