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Covid-19: Maharashtra tops 25,000 mark, 15,000 of the cases in Mumbai

Hindustan Times, Mumbai | BySwapnil Rawal | Edited by Sabir Hussain
May 13, 2020 11:08 PM IST

Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra have continued to soar and most of them have been from Mumbai.

Maharashtra breached the 25,000 mark for Covid-19 cases with the highest single-day jump yet of 1,495 new infections on Wednesday taking the total tally to 25,922, the state health department said.

Doctors at a screening exercise inMumbai’s Dharavi on Wednesday.(Pramod Thakur/HT PHOTO)
Doctors at a screening exercise inMumbai’s Dharavi on Wednesday.(Pramod Thakur/HT PHOTO)

Mumbai recorded 800 new cases to tale its tally past the 15,000 mark. By the end of the day, Mumbai had 15,747 Covid-19 cases.

Among other Covid-19 hotspots in Maharashtra was Pune city where the count has gone up to 2,830, Thane 1,122, Navi Mumbai 1,018, Malegaon 617, Aurangabad 586.

The state also recorded its highest casualties in a 24-hour period with 54 deaths taking the toll to 975. Forty of the casualties were in Mumbai, six in Pune, two each in Jalgaon, Solapur and Aurangabad, and one each Vasai-Virar and Ratnagiri. The health department added that it has not added Mumbai’s 220 patients from May 7 in the total tally due to the absence of reconciliation on the portal of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

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Out of the total Covid-19 cases in the state, over 50% of the cases have come in this month alone. Since May 1, Maharashtra has reported 13,820 Covid-19 cases, which is 53.31% of the total cases.

According to state health department, 422 patients recovered from Covid-19 on Wednesday, taking the total number of people who have recovered to 5,547. The state has so far carried out 2,30,857 tests of which 2.03,439 were negative and 25,922 positive.

Meanwhile, to ease the pressure off the state police who are enforcing the lockdown, the state government has asked for 20 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) from the Centre. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had last week indicated that the state could seek additional forces from the Centre to give a break to the state police forces in phases. Several police officers and personnel have been affected by Covid-19 and the entire is under a lot of strain.

“Many Maharashtra police personnel have tested positive for Covid-19 and need time to rest and recuperate,” he said, adding that May 25 is Ramzan Eid and the State would need augmented security presence to ensure law and order is not disturbed.

“We’ve hence asked for 20 CAPF companies to be deployed urgently to help the police,” said state home minister Anil Deshmukh.

The state government is now also looking at providing supplementary treatment of Ayurvedic, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy (AYUSH) medicines along with allopathic treatment for Covid-19 patients, who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. The state medical education and drugs department issued a government resolution to form a task force on AYUSH for Covid-19 under Dr. TP Lahane, Director of Medical Education and Research.

The nine-member panel, which also has former city mayor Dr Shubha Raul, will prepare guidelines for a treatment protocol, said Dr Kuldeep Raj Kohli, director of Ayush Maharashtra and joint chairman of the task force.

“The objective behind is to how best we can use Ayush in Maharashtra during this Covid-19 outbreak. The task forces would prepare a treatment protocol for people who are quarantined, are asymptomatic, or have mild symptoms. It would need clearance from the state’s Covid task force. People now are taking different types of medicines, at least they would get a guideline. People would then take medicines that the task force has asked to be taken,” Kohli said. He added that no form of allopathic treatment would be stopped for patients. Ayush treatment, if approved would be supplementary.

Meanwhile, as the numbers continue to soar in Aurangabad city, state health minister Rajesh Tope and district’s guardian minister Subhash Desai individually took stock of the situation. Tope has set up a task force to tackle the rising number of cases. The city has recorded 586 cases and 18 deaths. The doubling rate in the city stands at 8 days, which the civic body has brought down from 4.5days earlier this month. Malegaon, in Nashik district, is another hotspot in the state where cases have seen a surge. Tope visited Malegaon on Wednesday to take stock of the situation.

Aurangabad has 12 containment zones with 55 localities which are hotspots. Desai, who inspected the preparedness in the city, said, “There AMC Aurangabad Municipal Corporation has kept 4,000 beds available. Therefore, in case there is a spike, later on, there is no fear of any shortage of hospital beds. Besides, district medical college has kept 450 beds to treat severe and critical cases. The arrangements are so far adequate.”

Desai added that the industries department, which he heads, has allowed a 5,702 sq meters industrial facility in the city to be converted into a 250-bedded Covid-Care Centre in a month.

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