The COVID-19 pandemic kept up its grim tempo in Maharashtra as the reported 771 fresh cases and 35 fatalities on Monday as its cumulative case tally breached the 14,000 mark to reach 14,541, while a further 35 deaths saw the State’s death toll surge to 583.
As per the State Health Department, although today's rise in cases stood at 771, and the difference between the cases on May 3 (12,974 cases0 and today's tally is 1567, authorities said that as per GOI guidelines and ICMR directives, it adjusted numbers for cases which are not from Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Palghar districts.
“There is no cause for confusion. The increase is much more than 771. The reason for that being that we have updated community figures of all districts expect Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad as per the ICMR lists which are available on the COVID-19 portal and every lab is uploading it. We have updated it. The cumulative figures include last week’s figures as well and hence the increase appears to be much more,” said State Surveillance Officer Dr. Pradeep Awate.
As per figures from the State Health Department, Mumbai reported 19 fatalities including that of a person from Uttar Pradesh, while seven were reported from Pune city, while Akola — a virus hotspot in the State’s Amravati division — reported five deaths. One death each was reported from Thane, Solapur, Aurangabad and Nanded districts.
Mumbai city reported 510 of the new cases as the city's cumulative tally soared to 9,310 cases, with 361 fatalities thus far.
Despite the rising number of cases, on the positive side, as many as 350 persons were discharged today, taking the cumulative discharged till date to 2,465, said Dr. Awate.
“Almost 70% of the deaths reported today had high-risk co-morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma and heart disease,” he said.
Till date, 1,76,323 samples have been tested in Maharashtra of which 1,62,349 (nearly 90%) have returned negative while 14,541 have tested positive.
Pune district reported a surge of 60 cases as its tally of active cases reached 1454. As per the State Health Department, Pune district’s death toll stands at 113 despite the district administration giving the figure as 115.
Other parts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) reported sharp spike in fresh cases as well, with Thane district reporting a rise of 30 new cases as its tally rose to 578, while Navi Mumbai reported a sharp spike of 38 new cases as its cumulative tally touched 254 and Kalyan-Dombivli reported 16 new cases as its total tally rose to 228.
Malegaon in Nashik district – a major virus hotspot in north Maharashtra – reported a staggering surge of 101 new cases (as per the State Health Department’s figures) as Nashik’s tally surged to 382 active cases of which 330 are from Malegaon city.
“There are 1,026 active containment zones in the state currently. Presently, 1,98,042 people across the State were in home quarantine and 13,006 persons were in institutional quarantine facilities,” said Dr. Awate.
