Covid-19: 30% drop in new patients in Maharashtra, Mumbai; daily count lowest in 13 days

MUMBAI: New detections of Covid-19 cases in the state and the city decreased significantly on Monday.
Maharashtra added 3,837 fresh infections, lowest in 13 days and nearly 30% lower than the number of cases reported on Sunday, and 80 deaths on Monday, taking the total caseload to 18,23,896 and the total fatalities to 47,151.

Mumbai also reported the lowest new case additions in 13 days and a 31% dip from the number of cases reported on Sunday.The city added 646 cases and 19 deaths on Monday, taking the total Covid tally to 2,83,467 and fatalities to 10,884.
Dharavi's Covid tally rose to 3,692 on Monday after nine new cases were found in the densely populated slum colony, an official said. On Saturday and Sunday, five new cases each were reported in the area.
There was also a slight decrease in the active cases in the state and city as the number of discharges was higher than the new cases added on Monday. A total of 4,196 patients were discharged in the state on Monday, taking the total number of discharges to over 16.8 lakh and active cases to 90,557, of which 15,473 were in Mumbai.
A senior state official said that if there was any connection of rise in cases due to the drop in temperature, Maharashtra has not seen any effect as the temperatures in most parts of the state have not dropped significantly. On Monday, the cumulative positivity rate of Maharashtra fell below 17%-at 16.8%. The Centre, in its latest meeting with the states, had given them a target of bringing down the positivity rate below 5%.
A civic official said that in Mumbai, new case detection has remained under control despite a rise in cases. Deaths, too, have seen a significant decline as compared to previous months. "There has been an almost 60% decrease in deaths when compared to October. Over 80% of the fatalities involved people with comorbidities, while 76% were patients over 60 years of age," the official said, adding that senior citizens and those with comorbid conditions shouldn't delay getting testing or seeing a doctor once they have developed symptoms. Mumbai's cumulative case fatality rate is around 3.8%, while that of the state is 2.6%. The rolling fatality rate for the city, though, has dropped under 2%.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) reported 1,263 new cases and 26 fatalities on Monday, taking the total case tally to 6.3 lakh and total death toll to 18,522. Within MMR, Thane city saw as many as 162 new cases, taking the tally of infected people to 51,317, and four Covid deaths took the virus toll to 1,174. The recovery rate of Thane city is 94%, with 48,378 people recovered and 1,765 active cases. In MMR, Thane rural is contributing to most cases daily after Mumbai now, while Navi Mumbai and Kalyan-Dombivli are reporting less than 100 cases a day. Navi Mumbai, however, reported four deaths on Monday, second only to Mumbai in the MMR.
Meanwhile, the APMC administration in Navi Mumbai recently deployed five dedicated squads to penalise those caught flouting Covid safety norms in Vashi's wholesale market yard. So far, the APMC has caught 4,528 violators and collected Rs 9 lakh in fines.
(Inputs from B B Nayak)