This is the third time this month that the state has reported over 60,000 cases in a day. With this, the total caseload touched 37 lakh, and the death toll stood at 59,551. The state has added nearly 9 lakh new cases in the month of April so far.
In Mumbai, the daily tally was below 9,000 (8,803) for the second consecutive day on Friday. The daily toll, however, continued to rise, with 53 deaths reported on Friday as against 50 the previous day. Since March 2020, over 5.6 lakh cases and 12,250 deaths have been registered in Mumbai. “Although daily deaths are going up, our case fatality rate hovers around 0.5%,” said a BMC public health department doctor.
Dr Gautam Bhansali, who coordinates between BMC and private hospitals, said the bed situation is better now than it was a few days ago. “It will further improve in a couple of days when private hospitals start transferring their stabilized patients to step-down facilities in five-star hotels. More beds will be available for fresh patients,” he said.
Dr Rahul Pandit from Fortis Hospital, Mulund, who is a member of the state government’s task force on Covid, said ICU beds are still difficult to come by. “Moreover, in Mumbai, even after hitting the peak, the plateau stays on for a long time. We may thus see 8,000 to 10,000 cases every day for a few more weeks, and that is a big load of patients,” he said.
Public health minister Rajesh Tope said they are hopeful this is the peak for Maharashtra, but there is no way to predict what the peak could be. He also said the district administrations has been informed to ensure that large hospitals install their own oxygen concentrators and even set up plants to convert atmospheric oxygen to medical oxygen to ensure their patients are self-sufficient.
CM Uddhav Thackeray asked the BMC to coordinate with other agencies and take care of providing Covid test reports as early as possible, management of hospital beds and oxygen supply and availability of medicines in Mumbai. The CM took stock of the Covid situation in Mumbai and said early diagnosis would help to curb the spread of Covid. The BMC should also coordinate with suppliers of oxygen and medicines, he said. .
