Shocking! Every third minute, 1 person dies of Covid-19 in Maharashtra

Maharashtra, the worst-hit state in the country battling the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, adds more than 2,000 infections to its tally every hour, according to data analysis.

The analysis shows 2,859 people are contracting the coronavirus disease every hour and one person succumbs to Covid-19 every third minute on average

Maharashtra continued to record a spurt in daily cases of the coronavirus disease as the state added 68,631 new patients on Sunday, according to the daily health bulletin by the state health department.

It was the first time that the state recorded such a huge spike in a single day, which has pushed its tally to 38,39,338. The state also reported 503 fatalities, pushing the death toll to breach the 60,000-mark to 60,473.

Out of the latest additions, 8468 new cases were reported from Mumbai city alone and 53 died due to Covid-19 in the span of 24 hours. The death toll in Mumbai has now reached 12,354.

As Maharashtra remains the worst-hit state in the second wave of the pandemic, it is functioning under strict Covid-19 induced restrictions including weekend lockdown and Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

The state's upward trajectory in Covid cases has pushed the health infrastructure to stretch beyond limits.

Amid the shortage of oxygen in the state, the Indian Railways announced 'oxygen express' trains that will transport liquid medical oxygen and oxygen cylinders to Maharashtra and other destinations.

On Saturday, the railways formulated guidelines to allow transportation of liquid medical oxygen in cryogenic tankers after the Maharashtra government and Madhya Pradesh made a request to meet the shortage of the gas used for Covid-19 patients in the state.

Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope claimed on Sunday that no Covid-19 patient has died due to the shortage of medical oxygen in the state.

He also said that the fatalities occurred due to the delay at patients' end in seeking medical assistance on time.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday appealed to his Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray to withdraw the order declaring five states, including Goa, and Delhi as places of "sensitive origin" in view of the surge in COVID-19 cases.

The Maharashtra government on Sunday declared Kerala, Goa, Gujarat, Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), Rajasthan and Uttarakhand as places of "sensitive origin" in a bid to "stop the influx of other COVID-19 virus variants into Maharashtra from other locations".

As per the order, passengers travelling to Maharashtra from these places will need a negative RT-PCR report of the test conducted within 48 hours of their train travel.

More than 70 per cent of COVID-19 patients over 40 years of age in both the waves and older population continues to be more vulnerable to the infection, the Centre said on Monday. Addressing media, ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava said there is no difference in deaths between the first and second wave among hospitalised patients, while the oxygen requirement is higher in the second wave and ventilator requirement is not higher in the second wave.