‘People are behaving like Covid is over’ — what Maharashtra blames for sharp spike in cases

From 10-14 February, Maharashtra recorded 3,624 new Covid cases every day on an average. The new cases recorded on Sunday crossed the 4,000 mark after 39 days.

File photo of a health worker being administered Covid-19 vaccine at a Mumbai hospital | Photo: Twitter/@mybmc

Mumbai: Maharashtra, which accounts for about 25 per cent of India’s active Covid-19 cases, has been reporting a worrying trend of a sudden spike in cases.

Over the last five days, the number of new Covid cases in Maharashtra has seen an over 40 per cent jump.

From 10 February to 14 February, Maharashtra recorded 3,624 new Covid cases every day on an average. In comparison, in the preceding five days from 5 February to 9 February, the state averaged 2,560 recorded cases per day.

The new cases recorded on Sunday even crossed the 4,000 mark after 39 days. The state reported 4,092 new cases and 40 Covid deaths, according to the state government bulletin.

The daily test positivity rate has been ranging between 7 per cent and 10 per cent.

Experts and officials have blamed the spike on several factors — ranging from dip in mercury to panchayat elections, resumption of local trains in case of Mumbai and that of all economic and social activities across the state, effectively meaning “people are behaving like Covid is over”.

Speaking to ThePrint, officials pointed out that people have stopped following Covid-appropriate behaviour, and government departments have resumed regular activities that put the “entire burden of enforcing Covid protocol on the health department”.

Mumbai recording over 500 daily cases again 

In line with Maharashtra’s figures, capital Mumbai too has reported a sudden rise in new Covid cases over the past five days.

From 10-14 February, the number of new cases has consistently crossed 500 a day after being contained between 300 and 450 for the last few days.

On 14 February, the city reported 645 new cases, crossing the 600 mark after a gap of 31 days. On an average, between February 10 and February 14, Mumbai reported 568 new cases every day, a jump of 38.5 per cent as compared to the average 410 cases the city was witnessing in the preceding five days.

Mumbai has been one of India’s worst-hit cities with positivity rates going as high as 20 per cent in the first six months of the pandemic. Serological surveys indicated that a large percentage of both the city’s slum and non-slum population have already developed Covid antibodies.

Significantly, by December, the city’s daily test positivity rate dropped to below 5 per cent, indicating that the disease could be on the decline in India’s financial capital.

However, while the daily test positivity rate is still under 5 per cent, the rise in cases is a cause for concern.

Mumbai has so far recorded 3,14,076 Covid positive cases. Of these, 5,608 are currently active with the recovery rate steady at 94 per cent. Maharashtra has so far recorded 20,64,278 Covid positive cases, of which 35,965 are currently active.

Local trains a reason for spike in Mumbai, officials say

Dr Pradeep Awate, state epidemiologist, said, “There are a handful of basic reasons why there might be a spike in the number of cases in the state. There is a temperature dip in several districts, so that plays a part. The recently-concluded gram panchayat elections when a lot of people gathered in large numbers across the state, the start of local trains in Mumbai for all are a few other reasons.”

Maharashtra has a total of 27,920 gram panchayats, of which almost 50 per cent went to polls in January.

Suresh Kakani, Additional Municipal Commissioner at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), said the increase in numbers is largely because of the opening of local trains for the public from 1 February and resumption of most economic activities as well as increased domestic and international arrivals to Mumbai.

“We haven’t let testing drop. We are still conducting about 16,000 tests a day, but it is now more targeted. We are aggressively tracing and testing international and domestic arrivals in Mumbai,” he said.

Subhash Salunkhe, advisor to the state government on the Covid-19 pandemic, said: “More than anything else, people are behaving like Covid is over. This trend is worrying. People have stopped following protocol and taking precautions. Meanwhile, other government departments have resumed regular activities putting the entire burden of tracking, testing and enforcing Covid protocol in the state on the health department, the machinery of which is by now exhausted.”

He added: “I have brought to the attention of the health minister and deputy CM that we must impose some restrictions to prevent a situation where we have to reconsider a lockdown days again.”