New coronavirus cases come down in state but deaths show uptick

Daily figures of new coronavirus infections declined in Maharashtra in the first fortnight of July but the number of fatalities showed an upward trend data shows Cases surged in January 2022 due to the Omicron variant with as many as 1037080 cases being reported in the entire month The number fell to 144596 in February and steeply declined later with only 9354 cases coming to light in May But there was a spurt in June when 89028 new infections were reported in the state besides 66 fatalitiesBetween July 1 to 15 Maharashtra reported 38709 new infections As many as 90 deaths more than those reported in entire June were also recorded during this period As of July 15 Maharashtra had 16000 active casesDr Pradip Awate the states health surveillance officer said many times a patient with severe illness succumbs after three or four weeksAs a result while there may be a rise in cases in a given month it may not lead to an immediate spike in deaths Higher mortality may be noticed in the following month he saidDr Sunil Bhaisare who runs a Covid19 facility at the staterun St George Hospital in south Mumbai said most of the fatalities reported at his centre were older patients or those with comorbidities like diabetes and hypertensionAwate said that around 8085 per cent of Covid19 cases in the state are of BA238 and BA2 subvariantsAccording to the state health department the tally of BA4 and BA5 patients in the state stands at 113 and that of BA275 patients at 40 All three are subvariants of OmicronOn declining cases Dr Manjusha Agarwal senior consultantinternal medicine at Global Hospital said patients are recovering in 48 to 72 hours after reporting symptomsAlso Read Good news Covid19 surge is dipping in MumbaiNobody among those treated by her has required any remdesivir or immunotherapy in this current surge Patients are not having major complications Vaccination has also helped Agarwal saidGradually the intensity of illness is coming down so there is no need to panic she addedTrupti Gilada Infectious Diseases specialist at Masina Hospital said every time there is a surge in coronavirus cases it is bound to come down in a few weeksThis is because of the gradually increasing immunity in the population against the current strain of the virus When the surge begins many people are susceptible and we see a large number of cases Gilada saidAs more and more people recover the proportion of the susceptible population falls rapidly thus bringing down the number of new infections she saidVaccination and booster doses also have played a crucial role in bringing down this surge she saidThe decline cannot be attributed to better use of masks or improved Covidappropriate behaviour because evidently that never happened Gilada notedDr Rahul Pandit DirectorCritical Care Fortis Hospitals Mumbai who is also a member of Maharashtra governments Covid19 taskforce observed that the increase plateauing and decrease in cases is following a known patternThe Omicron variant has shown a rapid rise in the number of cases followed by a quick plateau at the top and then decline he said adding that the third wave or Omicron wave lasted for around six to eight weeksA similar pattern of rise in cases was seen recently but the numbers have now plateaued and started to come down he notedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever