The number of active Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra has been rising steadily. With 126, 523 cases and 2,205 fatalities reported in the last seven days, the state now has 235,857 active patients, more than a fourth cases in the country, leading to the fall in the recovery rate over last week.
The rising number in the active cases is a cause of concern for the authorities as it would put an additional burden on the health infrastructure. In a few districts where cases are rising, the infrastructure has not been ramped up enought to be able to take the load of additional cases, officials feel.
“From 171,542 cases two weeks ago on August 23, the number of active cases rose to 193,548 on August 30, and 235,857 on Sunday. The whopping rise in the cases over the past week is obviously putting the infrastructure under tremendous pressure. Some of the districts, like Sangli, Satara, Nagpur, have witnessed over a 40% rise in cases over the past week. The positivity rate of the state has jumped to more than 23% in the last few days from below 19% three weeks ago,” said an official from the health department.
The officer said that they were concerned about the availability of sufficient number of beds with oxygen and ventilator supply. The officer said that the ramping up the infrastructure has not been met to cope with the rise of 90,000 active patients increase in the last one month.
State health minister Rajesh Tope said the rise in the number of cases was owing to the unlocking. “We have lifted restrictions on inter-district movement, have increased workforce in offices and this has led to the spread of the virus. It is true that tracking of high and low risk contacts is just 10-12 against the expected number of up to 20 people. We are, however, prepared to take up the rise in the number of patients. District and corporation administrations have been directed to focus on tracking-testing and ramping up of the infrastructure,” he said. In the wake of the spike in the cases, state’s recovery rate also fell to 71.03% on Sunday from 72.58% on September 3.
