Active Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra cross 900; over threefold rise since March 3

For the last two months, Maharashtra had been reporting an average of below 50 cases per day which witnessed a gradual spike in the last one week. Thursday’s caseload of 226 pushed up the active cases in the state to 926 from 258 on March 3.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote to Maharashtra principal Secretary Sanjay Khandare on Thursday outlining that the state reported an increase in weekly cases from 355 in the week ending March 8 to 668 in the week ending March 15. “Further, the state reported a positivity rate of 1.92 per cent in the week ending March 15 which is higher than India’s positivity rate of 0.61 per cent during the same period,” reads the report.

At present, Pune has the most number of active cases at 278, followed by Mumbai (185) and Thane (153).

Former state surveillance officer Dr Pradip Awate said the increasing diurnal temperature gap across the state is contributing to the rise in Covid-19 cases. For instance, on March 12, Mumbai recorded a day temperature of 39.4 degrees, six degrees above normal, while the night temperature was 24.1, three degrees above normal level.

“When there is consecutively a huge gap of over 15 degrees between the maximum and minimum temperatures, it provides a suitable environment for viruses to thrive. This year, between January and March, there was a huge fluctuation in temperature which led to the viral growth,” Dr Awate said.

However, the hospitalisation rate is below one per cent as the circulating strain of coronavirus is less virulent. “The present clinical scenario Covid-19 symptoms barely last for 2-3 days and the patient recovers soon without any hassles and any major treatment. Whereas H3N2 and H1N1 last longer for a few weeks and have more chances of getting pneumonia or a secondary bacterial infection,” said Dr Samrat Shah, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine, Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital.

The rise in testing due to the ongoing spread of influenza has also contributed to the rise in Covid-19 cases, said doctors. “As the symptoms of Covid-19 and influenza are the same, doctors are conducting all the diagnostic tests in which asymptomatic patients are also getting detected,” said Dr Mangala Gomare, Executive Health Officer, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).