‘Lack of fear, pandemic fatigue’? Why Covid cases are rising in Maharashtra | India News – Times of India
The Centre has said that the surge in Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra could be due to lack of fear of the disease among people and pandemic fatigue, while asking the state not to let its guard down.
According to the daily figures, the last one lakh cases in the state were reported in just 12 days owing to fresh outbreaks in Vidarbha, Mumbai and Pune regions.
On Sunday, the state added 11,141 cases during the day and recorded 38 deaths, taking the overall toll to 52,478. On Friday and Saturday, the state reported 10,216 and 10,187 cases, respectively.
With this, the state continued to lead the fresh Covid surge in India.
Maharashtra is among the 6 states which have accounted for almost 85% of the daily new cases over the past few days.
In fact, Maharashtra alone has been reporting over 50% of the total caseload in the country. In the last 24 hours, Maharashtra accounted for over 59% of India’s total infections.
Places like Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur are leading the Covid surge in the state, followed by Amravati and Thane.
The state is now left with 92,897 active cases while the case recovery rate is 93.36 per cent. The fatality rate is 2.37 per cent.
‘Pandemic fatigue, absence of fear leading to spike’
Meanwhile, the Centre has attributed the surge in Covid infections in the state to factors like lack of fear of the disease and pandemic fatigue.
“While the exact causes of surge are not known – since laxity in Covid-19 behaviour is not specific to the state – the possible factors are Covid-inappropriate behaviour due to lack of fear of disease, pandemic fatigue; miss outs and super spreaders; and enhanced aggregations due to recent gram panchayat elections, marriage season and opening of schools, crowded public transport, etc.,” according to a report shared by the government.
The observations were made by a central team of experts that was to Maharashtra in view of the rising number of infections.
The Centre advised the state to continue contact tracing, surveillance and testing and ensure strict compliance of protocols.
“Don’t let the guard down. Stay to basics of surveillance, contact tracing and testing. Micro plan and ensure strict compliance of protocols. Strengthen teams to ensure meticulous home quarantine, do focused testing of 100 per cent population in hotspot areas repeated at five days, and isolate positives to check spread,” it said.
The government also observed that the virus is spreading to hitherto unaffected areas and most cases are asymptomatic.
“People are not forthcoming for strictly following quarantine or getting testing done. Sense is that the current wave is less virulent. The health machinery also may have become lax after cases came down after September.
“Some among the doctor fraternity – especially private – may not be counselling patients for testing or following protocols, dismissing it as flu. District/ State – wise participative plan, engaging the community may yield better results rather than knee-jerk reactions. Revenue machinery needs to take full charge,” the government experts team noted.
The areas visited during the two-day inspection in Maharashtra were Nagpur, Yavatmal, Amaravati, Khamli, Devnagar on the first day and Pune, Mumbai and Thane on the second day.
(With inputs from PTI)
