Coronavirus Spike Spreads to 28 of Maharashtra's 36 Districts; Nagpur, Latur Emerge as Hotspots

Twenty-eight out of 36 districts of Maharashtra have recorded a whopping spike in the daily coronavirus caseload in the past two weeks, which is up from 21 districts in the past 10 days. Districts in the Marathwada region like Latur, Hingoli, Parbhani, and Nanded are adding large numbers of active cases.

The health department’s data shows that active cases in the state have shot up, while new hotspots have emerged in Vidarbha, Amravati, Akola, and Yavatmal.

With fresh cases, Vidharba has become the epicentre of the February surge followed by Nagpur, Pune, Mumbai, Thane and Amravati. Active cases in these five districts have accounted for nearly 65 per cent of the total active cases in Maharashtra. A Times of India report stated the incidence of cases is particularly high in Nagpur where 5 million people reside as compared to Mumbai which has a population of 13 million. Across the state, Amravati has the highest positivity rate in the state- 41.5 per cent.

On Friday, the Covid-19 tally in Mumbai rose by 1,034 to reach 3,23,877, while three deaths took the toll to 11,461, an official said. The metropolis has recorded over 1,000 Covid-19 cases for the third consecutive day, with Wednesday and Thursday seeing 1,145 and 1,167 cases respectively. While in Nagpur, 1,074 new cases were reported and six fresh casualties. With this, the tally of infections in the district has reached 1,47,905, while the death toll rose to 4,320.

The daily growth rate of cases rose from 0.17 per cent on February 18 to 0.27 per cent now, while the time take for

cases to double shortened from 417 days to 256, data from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation showed.

As per the state’s health department, between February 15-21, the highest weekly growth rate in cases was reported by Amravati 19.4 per cent, followed by Akola- 10.5 per cent and Buldhana reported a growth rate of 6.1 percent.

A state official told TOI, Marathwada and Aurangabad have witnessed a jump in the active cases, from February 1 when the recorded cases were 347, the number of cases increased to 2,052 on Friday. Every district in the state has been advised to boost testing amid the sudden surge, the official added.

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