Covid-19 Cases in Maharashtra Could Top 11 lakh by April 30, Centre Warns State, Flags Oxygen Crisis

Sharing a grim projection of the current Covid-19 scenario in Maharashtra, the centre told the state authorities that active cases could exceed the 11 lakh mark by April 30 if people observe laxity and fail to abide by Covid-19 restrictions.

The centre told the state govt on Wednesday that the entire country had registered 11 lakh cases at its peak which Maharashtra alone could be adding by April end if the surge in cases continues unabated.

A report by TOI further revealed that the state might be facing an acute crisis in oxygen supply in the coming weeks with more than 61 per cent of the ICU beds being occupied.

As per data provided by the state govt, 34% of the 9,000 ventilators available for Covid patients are engaged while 90 to 100 per cent of the beds in districts like Nagpur, Aurangabad, Jalgaon etc are also occupied.

Principal health secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas was also of the opinion that the state could face a massive oxygen shortage and could be compelled to borrow it from other states to tide over the crisis.

A state official told TOI that Maharashtra had started with two isolation centres, Naidu Hospital in Pune and Kasturba in Mumbai and 350 beds in March 2020 which were eventually ramped up to 4,000 centres with 3.7 lakh beds. Yet, there was a possibility of the numbers falling short if the rise continues unhinged.

Studying the situation, Dr Pradeep Vyas said that there has been an exponential rise in the covid-19 cases in the last 7 to 8 days with districts like Nagpur and Mumbai suffering the most.

‘Nagpur has long outnumbered its first peak’s highest active cases (21,746) by crossing 57,372 in the second. Mumbai, too, is way past its first peak’s highest active cases of 34,259 by crossing 80,000 active cases,’ Vyas was quoted telling TOI.

CM Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said that the only plausible solution to curb this Covid-19 spread was by following Covid-19 safety protocols by the people while Dr Shashank Joshi, a member of the state Covid taskforce attributed the spurt in cases to the high volume of asymptomatic and suspect patients who often go unnoticed and end up becoming the spreaders or super spreaders.

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