There seem to be no signs of coronavirus pandemic slowing down in India’s most industrialized, developed state of Maharashtra as the state now accounts for more than one-third of total active cases in the country.
As India continues to fight against the grave coronavirus crisis, new data reveals that Maha Vikas Aghadi-led Maharashtra has been the worst hotspot in the country recording more fresh cases than any other states in the country.
According to Professor Shamika Ravi, the senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former member of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council, Maharashtra now accounts for 28 percent of all-India cases. Secondly, with nearly 8,000 cases being recorded every day, it continues to account for nearly 33 percent of all active cases in the country.
How is Maharashtra doing? #StateHealth
— Prof Shamika Ravi (@ShamikaRavi) July 19, 2020
1) MH comprises 28% of all-India cases.
2) With daily ~8000 new cases, MH=33% of all active cases in India.
3) MH has been, and remains, India’s worst hotspot state.
4) There is no controlling #COVID19India without stopping spread in MH. pic.twitter.com/6uloT6DwIN
As per Prof. Shamika Ravi, the limiting of coronavirus pandemic in the country cannot be stopped without an urgent intervention in the state of Maharashtra.
The data released by Prof. Ravi also states that the recovery rate of the coronavirus patients from Maharashtra is much lower than the national average. The recovery rate in Maharashtra is at 55 percent of the total coronavirus cases, while the national average stands at 63 percent.
The death rate of coronavirus patients in Maharashtra is at 3.9 percent is much higher than all-India rate 2.5 percent.
Maharashtra remains the most-affected state in the country, with nearly 3,00,937 cases reported out of the country’s 10,77,618 cases. The active cases in Maharashtra is at 1,23,678 of the total 3,73,379 cases. The state has also seen 9,893 deaths while the coronavirus death tally in the entire country stands at 26,816.
Further, Prof Ravi also said that Maharasthra has been testing very little since the beginning of the outbreak, and most importantly the test positivity rate has been high and rising dangerously since April despite the test rate is low compared to the national average.
Maharashtra – the epicenter of coronavirus cases in the country
Maharashtra has been pulling the overall average of India’s coronavirus cases. The Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra has been widely criticized for the mismanagement of the coronavirus cases in the state after more than 2.4 lakh people got affected by the Chinese pandemic, making almost one-third of the total cases in the country.
The appalling health infrastructure in the state of Maharashtra, especially in Mumbai, was also evident recently after shocking videos had emerged where it was seen how coronavirus patients and other emergency patients were made to share beds due to a shortage in capacity. The coronavirus patients being treated at Mumbai’s Sion hospital emergency ward were seen sharing beds, with two people being allocated to a bed. With a rising shortage in beds, the patients, many with coronavirus symptoms are also sharing a single oxygen tank.
The videos of the patients lying almost on top of each other, sleeping on shared stretchers or just lying on the floor had also gone viral some days back.
Earlier, another chilling video of the Sion hospital had gone viral on social media in which it was clearly seen that corpses were kept in the ward in which the patients of coronavirus were admitted. The dead bodies of coronavirus patients were kept next to the patients under treatment in a Hospital of Mumbai in the Sion area.
Later, shocking cases of alleged negligence by authorities in Maharashtra were reported as at least 12 people died in a span of two weeks in a BMC-run hospital in Jogeshwari, Mumbai due to a shortage in oxygen supply to coronavirus patients.
India may have 17 lakh+ total coronavirus cases: Prof Ravi
Earlier, Prof Shamika Ravi had estimated that the current growth rate of coronavirus cases in India is 3.4 percent. If the cases keep rising at this pace for another 20 days, we will see close to 17.8 lakh cases in total with 6.9 lakh active cases.
Prof Shamika had suggested that the states have to rethink and re-evaluate the containment strategies to slow down the spread of the infection.
Prof Shamika had noted that 40 percent of the new cases come from two states Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The 7-day Moving Average of the new cases suggests that Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have higher daily new cases than Delhi.
