Mumbai, (Samajweekly) Maharashtra on Friday notched a new high of 116 Covid-19 fatalities – up by 31 over Thursday – to cross the 2,000 figure of deaths, while a record 8,381 patients were fully cured and discharged across the state, health officials said.
Covid-19 deaths zoomed to a fresh high of 116 after the previous record of 105 fatalities on May 27, while the number of cases in Mumbai shot past the 36,000 mark.
With 58 deaths, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone – the worst-hit in the country – accounted for exactly half the fatalities, while 2,682 new positive cases were recorded in the state.
This comes to roughly one death every 12 minutes, and an average 112 new cases notched every hour in the state.
Maharashtra has been recording 75 plus fatalities and over 2,000 new patients for the past four consecutive days, with the last highest figure of 3,041 infections notched on May 24.
With the latest fatalities, the state death toll has touched 2,098 while the total number of coronavirus patients increased from 59,546 to 62,228.
The Health Department said of the total number of cases declared till date, 33,124 were active case, dropping by a significant 5,815 over 38,939 on Thursday.
The state now has a notched a recovery rate of 43.38 per cent compared to 31.26 per cent on Thursday and a mortality rate of 3.37 per cent, with the patient doubling time improving to 15.7 days over last week’s 7 days.
Of the the latest deaths, 38 were recorded in Mumbai alone, taking the city deaths up to 1,173 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here shot up by 1,447 cases to touch 36,932 now.
Mumbai’s congested Dharavi slum continued to be a major red-hotspot with 41 new cases, taking the total number of the infected to 1,715 while the figure of deaths remained static at 61.
Besides Mumbai’s 38 deaths, there were 17 fatalities in Jalgaon and Thane districts each, 13 in Pune, seven in Dhule, five each in Aurangabad and Malegaon, three each in Raigad, Nashik, Solapur and Kolhapur, and two in Amravati.
The victims comprised 77 men and 39 women, and nearly 65 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma.
On the positive side, a stupendous 8,381 fully cured patients returned home on Friday, taking the number of those discharged from 18,616 to 26,997 now.
The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) is setting up two massive Covid-19 hospitals – one in Thane at the Global Impact Hub and the other at the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Stadium in Mumbra town. Both will have 1,000 beds each.
Top officials including cabinet ministers Eknath Shinde and Jitendra Awhad, TMC COmmissioner Vijay Singhal and others inspected the upcoming facilities which will be ready over the next few days.
In a significant move, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced a huge hike in emoluments — between Rs.55,000-Rs.85,000 — to various categories of doctors on bond or on contract, especially those serving in the rural and tribal areas.
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has said that the Rs.50-lakhs insurance cover will be extended for all those engaged in the war against the virus including the police, home guards, aanganwadi workers, besides doctors, nurses and paramedics.
The MMR continued to cause grave concerns with 1,397 Covid-19 deaths and positive cases shooting to 47,482.
Though trailing a distant second after Mumbai, Pune Division fatalities touched 392, besides 8,451 patients.
The next major area of concern is Nashik Division with 154 deaths and 1,889 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 66 fatalities and 1,712 cases, and finally Akola Division with 47 deaths and 931 cases.
Latur Division has nine deaths and 326 cases, Kolhapur Division 10 deaths and 720 patients, and finally Nagpur Division with 10 deaths and 661 cases.
Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine came down sharply from 612,745 to 535,467 on Friday – a steep drop of 77,278, but those in institutional quarantine increased by 845 to 35,967.
The state’s containment zones increased from 2,816 to 2,941 on Friday and 17,600 health teams have carried out a survey of a population of around 67.6 lakhs in the state.
