The Center has said that the increase in Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra could be due to a lack of fear of the disease among people and pandemic fatigue, while calling on the state not to lower its guard.
According to daily figures, the last lakh of cases in the state was reported in just 12 days due to new outbreaks in the Vidarbha, Mumbai and Pune regions.
On Sunday, the state added 11,141 cases during the day and recorded 38 deaths, bringing the total to 52,478. On Friday and Saturday, the state reported 10,216 and 10,187 cases, respectively.
With this, the state continued to lead the new rise of Covid in India.
Maharashtra is among the 6 states that have accounted for almost 85% of new daily cases in recent days.
In fact, only Maharashtra has reported more than 50% of the total cases in the country. In the past 24 hours, Maharashtra accounted for more than 59% of all infections in India.
Places like Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur are leading the rise of Covid in the state, followed by Amravati and Thane.
The state is now left with 92,897 active cases, while the case recovery rate is 93.36 percent. The fatality rate is 2.37%.
‘Pandemic fatigue, fearlessness leading to a spike’
Meanwhile, the Center has attributed the rise in Covid infections in the state to factors such as a lack of fear of the disease and pandemic fatigue.
“While the exact causes of the sudden spike are unknown, given that laxity in Covid-19 behavior is not state-specific, possible factors are inappropriate Covid behavior due to lack of fear of disease, fatigue pandemic, losses and super spreaders, and improved aggregations due to recent gram panchayat elections, marriage season and school openings, crowded public transportation, etc., ”according to a report shared by the government.
The observations were made by a core team of experts who were in Maharashtra in light of the increasing number of infections.
The Center recommended to the state to continue tracking, surveillance, and contact testing and to ensure strict adherence to protocols.
“Don’t let your guard down. Follow the basics of surveillance, contact tracing and testing. Plan and ensure strict adherence to protocols. Strengthen teams to ensure meticulous home quarantine, conduct testing focused on 100% of the population in the hotspots repeated in five days and isolating the positives to check for spread, ”he said.
The government also noted that the virus is spreading to hitherto unaffected areas and that most cases are asymptomatic.
“People are not willing to strictly follow quarantine or get tested. The feeling is that the current wave is less virulent. The health machinery may also have become lax after cases fell after September.”
“It is possible that some members of the medical fraternity, especially the private ones, are not advising patients to get tests or follow protocols, and dismiss it as the flu. District / state participatory plan, community involvement can produce better results rather than knee-jerk reactions. The revenue machinery must take full control, ”said the government’s team of experts.
The areas visited during the two-day inspection in Maharashtra were Nagpur, Yavatmal, Amaravati, Khamli, Devnagar on the first day and Pune, Mumbai and Thane on the second day.
(With PTI inputs)
.
