Throughout several devastating waves of the pandemic, some public hospitals in India were so overwhelmed that doctors had to treat patients in hallways in the western state of Maharashtra. But in recent weeks the state, home to Mumbai, has made remarkable progress in sharply reducing its caseload, with the region on Wednesday reporting no daily Covid deaths for third time this month.
For months, public hospitals there were so overwhelmed with coronavirus patients that doctors had to treat some of them in hallways and even on the streets. In March 2021, entire districts in Maharashtra went back into lockdown as new cases and deaths surged, stressing the state’s already overtaxed health care system.
Now, that is starting to change.
“Sometimes you really wonder: What if the government had not taken some harsh measures?” said Suryakant Patil, a Mumbai resident. “Finally, those measures are showing some results, and there is a relief not seeing people dying every day.”
As of Friday, India had at least 42.98 million total reported virus cases, according to data from India’s ministry of health and family welfare, with a single-day rise of 4,184 new cases on Thursday and 104 deaths.
India has recorded at least 515,714 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, a vast undercount, according to some health experts. And Maharashtra has recorded 143,745 deaths, the highest toll among India’s states. On Thursday, it reported 452 new Covid cases and four deaths, officials said.
Health experts said that what sets Maharashtra apart in crucial ways from other Indian states is its ability to report fatality numbers in a transparent manner. India’s official Covid death toll has often been questioned by health experts.
A study published in the medical journal The Lancet on Thursday concluded that India’s Covid-19 deaths were vastly underreported, and the researchers suggested that the country’s cumulative excess deaths in the pandemic could be at over four million.
The city of Mumbai has also experienced a steep drop in Covid patients in critical condition — a number that now stands at fewer than 50 in a city of 21 million people — and only 4 percent of the city’s hospital beds for such critical patients are occupied, according to Maharashtra’s health department. Several private hospitals have even shut down their Covid-19 wards.
Health experts have stressed that mass vaccinations could be the only way for India to fully corral its way out of the pandemic. The country continues to vaccinate its population of 1.4 billion people, and over 92 percent of those eligible in Maharashtra have received one dose, with 72 percent having received two doses, according to health officials there.
Overall, 59 percent of people in India are fully vaccinated, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford, and 71 percent of people have received at least one dose.
Rajesh Tope, Maharashtra’s health minister, said that the authorities there had been relaxing some restrictions and would continue to do so, but that the changes did not mean that people should lower their guard.
“If there is anything that we have learned, it is to be extra cautious when it comes to coronavirus,” he said. “We will still enforce strict social distancing and mask wearing.”
