MUMBAI: For the first time in 3 months, Maharashtra's daily tally of Covid-19 cases crossed the 700 mark on Tuesday. Mumbai saw daily detections cross 500-a first in 114 days.
May ended with the state recording 152% more cases over April, although deaths dropped by a significant 70%. In fact, the month of May saw one of the lowest monthly death tallies (18) so far in the pandemic.
The state recorded 711 fresh cases on Tuesday, its highest single-day detection since February 27 when 782 cases were found. It was the tail end of the third wave then. Mumbai's Tuesday detection of 506 cases too is the highest since February 6 when 536 cases were registered. The rise in cases has pushed the state's overall tally of Covid-19 cases to 78.87 lakh and Mumbai's to 10.64 lakh.
The surge in May pushed the month's case count to 9,354 from 3,708 in April. The rise, though, hasn't led to a corresponding increase in deaths so far. May, in fact, saw one of the lowest monthly death tallies yet at 18. By comparison, 60 deaths were reported in April, 77 in March, 1,090 in February and 1,085 in January when the third wave was at its peak.
Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer, said there has not been a rise in the count of severe disease in proportion to cases. "Although there are 3,475 active cases, only 114 patients are admitted to hospitals. Of those, 29 are on oxygen support and 3 on ventilator," he said. Importantly, Dr Awate said that BA.4 and BA.5 cases have been circulating in Maharashtra since the beginning of May as recent detections have shown, yet it has not led to an exponential rise in cases. The 7 cases of Ba.4 and BA.5 found in Pune were from May 4 to May 18.
Epidemiologist Dr Chandrakant Lahariya told TOI on Sunday that a rise and fall in Covid-19 cases will be routinely seen now.
