A day after crossing the grim 300,000 Covid-19 cases mark, Maharashtra on Sunday recorded its sharpest single-day jump of 9,518 infections, first in excess of 9,000, taking the tally to 310,455. It also recorded 258 more fatalities, taking the death toll to 11,854.
Amid continued complaints of inflated private hospital bills, state health minister Rajesh Tope said that independent auditors have been appointed to verify bills of Covid-19 patients treated in private hospitals.
The state breached the 9,000 mark in daily cases for the first time after clocking over 8,000 cases on each of the past three days. The number of active cases in the state now stands at 169,569 with 3,906 patients discharged on Sunday.
Mumbai recorded 1,038 new cases to push the city’s tally to 101,388. The city also added 64 fatalities that took the death toll to 5714. The cities in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), excluding Mumbai, contributed to 39% of the cases recorded on Sunday.
The eight municipal corporations, excluding Mumbai, and three districts that fall in MMR added 2,751 new cases with Kalyan-Dombivli recording 495 cases. Kalyan-Dombivli is the worst affected in MMR with 18,115 cases, followed by Thane city and Thane district at 332 and 348 new cases, which pushed their respective tallies to 17,226 and 10,503. Vasai-Virar recorded 276 new cases, while Navi Mumbai recorded 298 new Covid-19 cases. Ulhasnagar added 198 new cases, while Mira-Bhayander added 135 fresh infections.
On the “inflated” hospital bills, Tope, in a tweet on Sunday, said, “The bill of the patients admitted for Covid-19 will only be given to them after it is inspected by an auditor. For that, independent auditors have been appointed for all private hospitals.” He had gone to Solapur [city with the highest Covid-19 case fatality rate (CFR)] to take stock of the Covid-19 situation on Sunday, along with NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
At a press conference in Solapur, he was asked about the continued complaints by patients of being overcharged by private hospitals.
“For the bills management, we requisitioned 80% beds in private hospitals for Covid-19 patients. We have also capped charges at Rs4,500 for non-ICU bed and Rs7,500 for ICU ones. These are package rates, including for tests, etc; no hidden charges. Besides, 1,000 hospitals under Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana provide free treatment,” he said.
The minister or the government have so far not outlined what action it would take against the private hospital if found guilty of overcharging.
In June, the NCP chief had first raised concern over overcharging by private hospitals for Covid-19 treatment. Pawar raising the issue gained significance as the health department was with the NCP. Subsequently, earlier this month Tope said that the state government would appoint auditors to look into the complaints of inflated bills.
Besides MMR, Pune recorded 1,812 new cases and 25 fatalities on Sunday, while its neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad reported 851 new cases to cross the 10,000-mark to 10,507 confirmed cases. Pimpri-Chinchwad also reported 15 fatalities. Pune crossed 1,000 fatalities on Sunday as its death toll rose to 1,019. Nashik city breached the 6,000-mark with 471 new cases, taking the tally 6,015; it also recorded 10 deaths.
Solapur city, another hotspot in the state, has the government and the administration worried with its high CFR. With 334 fatalities, Solapur city has a CFR of 8.63%, which is the highest in the state. The city recorded 71 new cases, that took its tally to 3,867.
Tope visited Solapur to review the situation and said that he has directed the local civic body to expand the institutional quarantine facility to segregate asymptomatic Covid-19 positive patients from densely populated areas. Speaking to reporters in Solapur, the minister also said that he has directed authorities to increase the number of beds with oxygen supply.
“There would not be any shortage of hospital beds. I have instructed authorities to ramp up the infrastructure. I have also stressed on the need for institutional quarantine facilities to remove patients from densely populated areas. Additional beds with oxygen supply will be added in the next 15 days,” he said adding that these measures will help bring down the high CFR.
The minister added that the state government has increased testing across the state, including in Solapur. He said that around 10,000 antigen tests will be carried out in Solapur in the coming weeks. Senior health department officials said that the antigen test, which provides faster results in comparison to the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test, will helpo curb the spread of the virus in the city.
Tope reiterated the state government’s plan to start plasma therapy across all districts in the state. He said, “Plasma therapy has yielded positive results and there are many success stories and we want to start it in other parts of the state. The therapy would start in 18 medical college hospitals in the state soon.”
So far, Maharashtra has carried out 15,64,129 tests and has an overall positivity rate (19.85%) for Covid-19. Currently, 754,370 people have been put under home quarantine and 45,846 people are in institutional quarantine, the state health department data said.
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