Leader of opposition in Maharashtra assembly, Devendra Fadnavis, took to Twitter on Tuesday to emphasise on mass testing. In a series of tweets, he summarised “what we gained and what we lost, as a result of gradually reducing testing for COVID-19 infection.”
Observing that the rate of infection in Maharashtra, which, he said, was 6 to 7 per cent at the very beginning, went upto 17-18 per cent by June 8 and now it is 23 to 24 per cent. "Meaning of 100 people who got tested, 24 turned positive with COVID-19."
Further, he said although Mumbai's infection rate has stabilized at 21 to 27 per cent, the number of tests is very low. Fadnavis pointed that between 1 and 19 July, only 5,500 tests were conducted per day. "This despite Union Home Minister Amit Shah's intervention to increase the number of tests. The infection rate has dropped from 30-35 percent to 6 percent, and the number of corona victims has dropped. But the number of tests conducted daily still remains the same. At least wake up now and realise that there is no alternative to mass testing. The only way to overcome corona, reduce the number of patients and prevent the deaths of civilians in the state is to conduct more tests, isolate suspects and protect others," he said.
As of July 21, the number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra is close to 3,20,000, with Mumbai alone contributing to over 33 per cent of the cases. Over 12,000 people have lost their lives across the state; 176 new deaths reported in the last 24 hours.
According to the report released by the medical education and drugs department of Maharashtra, the mortality rate in the state (3.77 per cent) continues to be much higher than the national average of 2.43 per cent and dreadfully close to the morality rate across the world which stands at 4.21 per cent.
According to experts, what makes Maharashtra the worst-affected state in India are the high numbers reported from across its municipal corporations that lie outside the MCGM or greater Mumbai region. Of these, Kalyan Dombivali municipal corporation reported the highest number of cases (18,600) followed by Thane municipal corporation (17,510) and Navi Mumbai municipal Corporation (13,230). Also, districts such as Jalgaon, Pimpri Chinchwad, Solapur, Satara, Raigad, Vasai-Virar, Mira-Bhayander and others witnessed a surge in cases.
"The thing is that the medical infrastructure in many of these corporations is not at par with what is available in Mumbai. So a lot of to and fro is happening," said Brinelle D'-Souza, professor at TISS and co-convenor of Jan Swasthya Abhiyaan. On July 21, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in Osmanabad got approval to conduct COVID-19 testing, using RT-PCR technique, thereby taking the total number of COVID-19 testing labs in the state to 131.
In the meantime, experts predict that heavy showers in the state's Konkan regions could compound the problem as monsoon-related illnesses would overload the already strained health infrastructure. "Our biggest worry is how we will differentiate those with malaria, leptospirosis and dengue from those with COVID-19," said Dr. Harshad Limaye, internal medicine specialist at Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai. "We are also expecting a few cases of swine flu. The already acute bed-availability crisis might worsen anytime now."
