Covid-19: Fatalities jump in Maharashtra to 53, highest in over 100 days

MUMBAI: A day after the Monday low thanks to restricted testing on weekends, Maharashtra reported a 26% rise in daily case detection to 39,207 on Tuesday and a steep 120% jump in Covid deaths. The state registered 53 fatalities, the highest in over 100 days since October 8 (59).
The city registered a 3% increase in cases (6,149), but for the third day in a row, daily detections stayed under 10,000 cases.Deaths came down to 7 from 12 on Monday.
State surveillance officer Dr Pradeep Awate said it's too premature to construe the rise in fatalities in the state as a worsening of the wave. "This rise is mainly due to late reporting of deaths from some districts," he told TOI.
The third wave has just begun in most districts (except Mumbai, which is already witnessing a decline) and any increase in deaths is usually seen in a week or fortnight after the peak of cases. The total caseload of the state reached 72.8 lakh with 1,41,885 deaths.
"Also, these deaths should be seen in the perspective of the toll during the Delta wave. During the April-May 2021 period, Maharashtra would witness around 1,000 deaths a day," said Awate.
According to the daily Covid-19 report released by the health department, the Mumbai region added 17 deaths, while Pune and Kolhapur circle added 13 deaths. Also, the Pune region (13,275) reported more cases than the Mumbai region (13,053) on Tuesday. Over 4,000 cases were reported from the Nashik region.
The daily test positivity in Mumbai increased marginally from 12.5% to 12.9% on Tuesday. "Our daily positivity was over 30% during the peak in the second week of January," said a civic doctor.
BMC officials expect that the third wave will dip significantly in the next fortnight. "Cases may increase on Wednesday, but we expect the tally to drop to three digits by January-end," said BMC additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani.
Kakani, who conducted a Covid review on Tuesday, said he has asked deans of jumbo centres to restrict admissions to one or two wards. "Bed occupancy continues to be low across the city. We can open more when we need to," he said. According to the BMC dashboard, out of 38,116 Covid beds in the city, only 6,131 are occupied at the moment.
Senior officials said cases are just beginning to surge in the other parts of the state and delay in reporting could be a concern in these areas. Due to the large number of discharges, the active cases in the state rose slightly while the cases in Mumbai further dropped to 44,084.