Even though the Maharashtra Cabinet on Wednesday has decided not to impose stringent restrictions during the Ganesh Utsav, it has expressed concern over the high growth in COVID 19 patients in 9 districts against the weekly average of 0.06% and high positivity rate in 8 districts against the weekly average of 2.67%. What is worrying is of the 41,425 new patients found between August 27 and September 7, as high as 28,373 are from Mumbai, Pune, Ahmednagar, Satara and Solapur districts and a balance 13,052 from other districts.
The Public Health Department in its presentation pointed out that the COVID 19 tests per million are in excess of the state average of 4,28,176 in 11 districts while in the remaining districts it is ranging between 1,20,188 per million and 3,62,976 per million.
Ahmednagar district tops with high growth in patients at 0.24% followed by Satara 0.18%, Solapur 0.16%, Ratnagiri 0.13%, Sangli 0.13%, Pune 0.08%, Osmanabad 0.08%, Raigad 0.07% and Sindhudurg 0.07%. On the other hand, Pune has reported high positivity rate at 6.33% followed by Sangli 5.59%, Ahmednagar 5.35%, Satara 4.43%, Osmanabad 4.40%, Nashik 3.34%, Ratnagiri 3.29% and Sindhudurg 3.18%.
The department said the government has strengthened the health infrastructure to combat the third wave as there are 479097 isolation beds excluding ICU, 351330 isolation beds for COVID 19 patients, 127721 isolation bed for suspects, 121478 oxygen beds, 36702 ICU beds, 14,254 ventilators, 1586096 PPE kits and 2618860 N95 masks.
Moreover, the government does not expect a shortage of Remdesivir and Tocilizumab vials. It has the stock of 751 Tocilizumab 400 mg injections, 4,32,470 Remdesivir 100 mg vials, 87,91,511 Favipiravir 200 mg tablets and 29,04,272 Rapid Antigen kts.
