Maharashtra sees 3,075 new Covid-19 cases, lowest in 214 days

Though the Covid-19 cases have come down, the Maharashtra government is wary about the possible increase in the cases in the state after the Ganesh festival

Even as the state authorities are anticipating a potential rise in the number of Covid-19 cases amid the ongoing Ganesh Festival, Maharashtra on Saturday recorded 3,075 Covid-19 new cases, which is the lowest number after 214 days. The last lowest figure was on February 9, when 2,515 new cases were recorded.

Maharashtra ranks second in terms of active Covid-19 cases next to Kerala. (Satish Bate/HT PHOTO)

Though the cases have come down, the state government is wary about the possible increase in the cases in the state after the Ganesh festival.

The low number of cases on Saturday can be attributed to the less number of tests conducted in the last 24 hours —1,33,479 — which is one of the lowest ones in recent months. The testing number is less due to the first day of the Ganesh Festival.

The average testing per day in the past 11 days this month has been 169,020, while the average testing in August was 193,848 per day.

Amid the crowding at the public places, including markets, Ganesh pandals and people visiting their relatives’ houses, the authorities feel that there could be a rise in the cases in the next two weeks.

State surveillance officer Dr Pradeep Awate said festivals tend to result in a surge of cases.

“We have been observing that the cases tend to increase after the festivals. Citizens tend to flout basic rules like wearing masks or maintaining social distance,” said Dr Awate. He cited the recent example of the Onam festival in Kerala, where the cases shot up exponentially after the festival.

Currently, Maharashtra ranks second in terms of active cases next to Kerala. There are 37,774 active cases in Maharashtra, of which, five districts Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Satara and Ahmednagar account for 75.85% as the number 37,774 cases.

However, on the ground, there are still eight districts that have positivity rates more than the state average of 2.67% according to the weekly report released on Tuesday. Of this Pune (6.33%), Sangli (5.59%) and Ahmednagar (5.39%) has a positivity rate of more than 5%, which indicates that Covid-19 is still not under control.

Awate said that the state government has served advisories to all the districts in the state and have especially asked these five districts to ensure all caution. “We have asked them to ramp up the testing facilities as well as ensure that the patients are isolated and started their medication,” said Awate.

Dr Ishwar Gilada, secretary-general, Organised Medicine Academic Guild said the entire scenario is very confusing. “We feel that the variants are causing havoc and not allowing the numbers to come down. In addition, the vaccination drive is not consistent across all districts due to the Central-State tussle,” said Dr Gilada.

“On one hand, the government is asking people to celebrate low key Ganeshotsav, and on the other hand, thousands of buses are arranged to transport people to the Konkan region. How can we control the virus in such a scenario,” said Gilada.

The state has also speeded up the vaccination drive as 935,575 citizens were administered their vaccine doses on Saturday. The total number of doses administered to date from January, when the drive started, has now reached 67,664,505 of which 18,560,050 citizens have been fully vaccinated.

Mumbai, on Saturday, recorded 361 new cases with four deaths.

The state’s death toll has reached 138,096, while the caseload stands at 6,494,254. The total number of active patients in Maharashtra currently stands at 49,796, of which Pune tops with 12,949 patients followed by Thane with 7823 active patients and Satara with 5584.