COVID-19: Centre Says Maharashtra’s Active Cases Could Touch 11 Lakh by April 30

The total number of active coronavirus cases in Maharashtra could surpass 11,00,000 by April 30 if health guidelines aren’t followed appropriately, the central government warned. Reaching this stage would mean doubling the current caseload, something that seems likely given the surge. 

The Centre made this projection on Wednesday, adding that the nation was at 11 lakh active cases during last year’s peak, and Maharashtra alone could have that many active cases if infections aren’t curbed. 

It’s worth noting that although only 40 per cent of the current 5 lakh active patients are hospitalized, around 80 per cent of the isolation beds are reportedly full. 

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Further, over 61 per cent of the ICU beds in the state are currently occupied, and 34 per cent of the 9,000 ventilator beds for COVID-19 patients are in use. Moreover, around 90 to 100 per cent of the beds are said to be occupied in regions like Nagpur, Aurangabad, Jalgaon, Latur, and Yavatmal according to data published by the state.

In another major concern for the state, the Principal Health Secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas said this week that daily consumption of oxygen was crossing 850 metric tonnes (MT) as against Maharashtra’s daily production capacity of around 1,150MT. 

“We have told the Union government that we could be using up all oxygen that we are producing in a week’s time. We will have to borrow from other states,” Dr Vyas said.

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COVID-19 Task Force member, Dr Shashank Joshi said, “The spread is in clusters and has happened very fast. The state government has tied up with the Centre to carry out genomic testing of samples from every district to see if there was a correlation.” 

“The biggest problem is the high volume of asymptomatic and suspect patients. They are invisible and can be spreaders and super spreaders,” Dr Joshi added.

The State Health Department said that Maharashtra recorded 56,286 new cases on Thursday, taking its total tally to 32,29,547.

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