Coronavirus: More COVID-19 patients discharged in Maharashtra after Centre revises policy, says Rajesh Tope

On Friday evening, when Maharashtra government's Public Health Department sent out the daily COVID-19 update - it came as a surprise.

On Friday, 8,381 patients were discharged taking the total to 26,997. On Thursday, the figures were 698 and 18,616, respectively.

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As far as Mumbai was concerned, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) put Friday's discharge figure as 715 and the cumulative total as 16,008.

Describing it as a good sign, Public Health and Family Welfare Minister Rajesh Tope said that mainly it was because of the large number of patients who are asymptomatic and the Centre's revised discharge policy.

"The discharge rate of patients was massive.....We have a total of 62,228 patients, of which 26,997 have been discharged....the active patients are 33,124," Tope said, pointing out that the total active patients is around 50 per cent of the progressive total.

The speedy discharge of patients is because of the change in discharge policy and a large number of asymptomatic patients plus the updation of records.

As per the latest data collated by the state government, 83 percent of the patients are asymptomatic, around 15 to 16 per cent show mild to moderate symptoms. Only 1.5 percent need ventilators.

"The recovery rate has increased manifold and we are almost at the level of the national average," he said, adding that there is nothing to fear and panic.

Health officials said that after the new guidelines of May 10 , a lot of patients were discharged but the sudden rise is because of updation of records.

A senior doctor, who is associated with the IMA-Maharashtra as well as the state government, noted that the new policy is well thought out.

"First of all, Mumbai is the worst affected city, the BMC is putting up a dashboard on bed's availability and records are being updated so that we get data on a real-time basis. Besides, we will also have to consider that in June-July, there will be a big spike. The beds have to be judiciously used," he said, adding that Friday's data have discharge figures of previous days and weeks.