Maharashtra tally hits 302 after sharp rise, officials explain why

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A total of 82 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) were detected in Maharashtra on Tuesday, a health official said as the state’s tally reached 302.

This was the highest rise in the number of cases in a day in Maharashtra so far, but officials assured that there was nothing to worry and that the rise was on account of results from private laboratories.

Mumbai accounted for 59 of the new cases, according to the state health department. The total number of infections in the city stood at 151. Ahmednagar reported three cases, while two cases each came to light in Pune, Thane, Vasai, Virar and Kalyan-Dombivali cities, he added.

The health ministry’s website put the death toll in the western state at eight. Maharashtra, which was the first state to declare shutdown to contain the epidemic on March 22, has the highest case count and fatality among all Indian states.

“The number of 59 cases are an accumulation of test reports conducted by private laboratories in the last three days that was validated by the state laboratories,” said Bhushan Gagrani, a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer who is also a member of the control room set up to deal with the outbreak.

As per guidelines issued by the central government, first 10 test reports of a private laboratory need to be validated by a state-run laboratory. Only after that, test reports of private labs are considered final.

This is the reason that test reports of the past three days got accumulated, creating an impression that there is a spike, said another senior health official.

At present, the state has a capacity to test over 5,000 samples a day. Of them, the capacity of 13 government laboratories stands at 2,300 samples a day. Eight private laboratories can test 2,800 samples a day, said state health minister Rajesh Tope.

“Since, there is no need to conduct sample-testing at such a level, we are not using testing facilities at full capacity,” Tope said.