Covid-19 cases, deaths in November down 50% from October in Maharashtra

Maharashtra on Monday added 3,837 fresh Covid-19 infections to push its tally to 1,823,896 and 80 fatalities to take the state’s toll to 47,151.

In November, the state saw a significant drop in the number of cases and deaths in comparison to October (around 50% drop) and September. State health department officials said the positivity rate in November was lower than in April when the first wave was picking up. Active cases, however, are on the rise again in the state, keeping authorities alert.

In October, Maharashtra had recorded 293,960 Covid-19 cases, which dropped by 50.5% in November to 145,490. Fatalities reported in October were 7,249, which dropped by 49.09% to 3,690 in November

The drop in cases and fatalities is even sharper when compared to September. In September alone, Maharashtra recorded a whopping 591,905 cases and 12,079 fatalities, which means there was a 75.42% drop in cases and 69.45% fall in deaths in November.

“Besides that, the positivity rate in this month [November] was 7.7%, which is lower than April’s positivity rate, which was 8%,” said Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer.

Of the fatalities reported on Monday, 35 occurred within the past 48 hours, while eight deaths occurred in the past week. The remaining 37 deaths were before a week, the health department said. The case fatality rate (CFR) stood at 2.59%. Mumbai, meanwhile reported 646 fresh Covid-19 cases and 19 deaths to push the tally and toll to 283,467 and 10,884, respectively. The active caseload in the city stood at 15,473. Mumbai’s CFR is 3.84%.

The state’s active cases had dipped to 78,272 on November 20 and since then, they have increased. Between November 20 and 30, the active caseload in the state rose by 15.69% to 90,557.

The state health department had alerted the district administration earlier this month, warning it of a potential second wave of Covid-19 infections after the festive period. However, so far, there has been no significant increase in the number of Covid-19 cases. The district and municipal authorities, however, remain on guard. “So far, there is no significant increase in cases. Whatever increase is seen it is due to ramped-up testing. Besides that, all districts are testing potential ‘superspreaders’ to get an early sign for a potential second wave,” Awate added.

The district and civic authorities are identifying “superspreaders” in the population, or people who have maximum social contact in the community, and are testing such people on priority. These include bus conductors, street vendors, milkman, among others, who are likely to come in contact with 10-15 people daily due to the nature of their work. “Not just in Mumbai and urban centres, all districts are testing a category of people who have a higher contact with people on a daily basis,” he said. Monday’s lower case count was attributed to lower testing on Sunday, which reflected on Monday’s data, Awate said. In the last 24 hours, 51,962 samples were tested, according to the figures of the health department.

Pune district reported 522 fresh cases and four fatalities, where Pune city reported 179 cases and one death, while Pune rural parts saw 184 cases and two deaths. Pimpri-Chinchwad reported 159 cases and one death. Nagpur district reported 224 new cases, of which 178 were from Nagpur city. The district reported seven deaths. Nashik district reported 324 fresh cases, with Nashik city clocking 170 cases and three deaths, while Nashik rural reported 152 cases and four deaths. Malegaon reported two cases and one death. Solapur rural saw 156 new cases and five deaths.

So far, Maharashtra has tested 10,856,384 samples and has a positivity rate of 16.8%. Monday also saw recoveries of 4,196 patients, taking the total tally of recovered patients to 1,685,122. The recovery rate in the state stood at 92.39%. Currently, 535,530 people are in home quarantine and 6,354 people are in institutional quarantine.