India COVID-19 cases rise as Maharashtra takes the caseload reins forward

The number of Coronavirus cases are on a rise again and from the looks of it, the increase in number has been driven by new cases coming from Maharashtra. On Wednesday, Maharashtra detected the highest number of daily cases since October last year and is again stepping into a phase which was worst for the state. In just one week, overall cases in Maharashtra witnessed a steep rise. This led Maharashtra to surpass Kerala in the highest number of active cases in the country. Kerala, on the other hand, has been recording a steady decline in COVID-19 active cases.

A report by The IE noted that Maharashtra is currently catering to more than 59,000 active cases. At this time, overall active cases in the country stand at 1.51 lakh and among these, Kerala has now the second highest active cases with 53,000 people infected with the novel Coronavirus infection. Karnataka has become the state with the third highest number of active cases. However, the number of active cases is substantially less at 6,000.

In Maharashtra, the number of cases coming from Mumbai and Pune are now almost equivalent to the number of cases that were coming from the entire state just three weeks ago. The report noted that both megacities in the state have been reporting more than 1,000 cases on a daily basis. Pune alone has been reporting 1,500 new cases. However, surge has been seen in other cities like Nashik, Kalyan, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Satara, Amravati, Nagpur and Akola.

The report noted that the worrisome factor is that this surge in the number of cases would eventually lead to an increased death toll at a time when the graph of death numbers seem to be on an upward growth. While the number of reported deaths reported in the state were reported at 30-40 daily, in the last two days, 130 deaths have been recorded as 80 people succumbed to the viral infection on Wednesday itself.

This, according to the report, should be a warning for both people and the government as signs indicate the state going down the COVID-19 spiral again. The surge could be attributed to decline in testing, and carelessness in mask adoption as well as social distancing.