Maha notches new high of Covid-19 cases, MMR deaths cross 5K

Mumbai, June 25 Maharashtra's Covid-19 cases again jumped sharply from Wednesday's highest of 3,890 to a new peak of 4,841 on Thursday while the deaths in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) shot past the 5,000 mark to 5,065, health officials said.

The state's fatalities again catapulted from the June's lowest of 62 to 192 on Thursday, down from the previous day's highest death figure of 248 on Tuesday.

On June 16, the state had reported the highest 1,409 fatalities taking into account, reconciliation of earlier deaths, which drastically escalated the toll.

With the latest fatalities, the state death toll climbed to 6,931 and total cases shot up to 147,741 till date, both being the highest in the country.

Thursday's figures work out to roughly one death recorded every 8 minutes and a staggering 202 new cases notched every hour.

For the third consecutive day, the recovery rate again improved and went up from 51.64 per cent to 52.42 per cent, while the mortality rate stood at 4.69 per cent.

The Health Department said of the total number of cases declared till date, 63,342 are active cases.

Of Thursday's deaths, Mumbai alone accounted for 98 - pulling up the city death toll past the 4,000 mark to touch 4,062 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here went past the 70,000 level by 1,350 cases to touch 70,878 now.

There were 37 deaths in Thane, 22 in Pune, 10 in Aurangabad, six in Jalgaon, four each in Palghar and Solapur, two in Akola and Palghar, one each in Raigad, Satara, Yavatmal, Nashik, Buldhana, and two from other states.

On the positive side, a total of 3,661 fully cured patients - the second highest till date - returned home on Thursday, taking the number of those discharged to 77,453 now.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday made a shocking allegation that around 1,000 out-of-hospital Covid-19 deaths in Mumbai were suppressed.

In a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Fadnavis questioned the purported lapse and demanded a reconciliation of the figures, though the state government and BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation have not yet reacted.

"It is wrong to suppress figures...in case of death because of Covid-19,A the figure should reflect within a maximum 72 hours," the BJP leader said in his letter.

The MMR (Thane Division) remains a hotspot with a total of 5,065 Covid-19 deaths, and the number of positive cases touching 107,714.

Thane - with 29,488 cases and 810 fatalities - has emerged as the second worst-hit district after Mumbai in the state.

Pune district comes third with 18,015 patients and 659 deaths till now. But Pune Division ranks second (after MMR) with 21,346 patients and 937 deaths.

The next major region of concern is Nashik Division with 463 deaths and 6,935 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 228 fatalities and 4,851 cases, and finally Akola Division with 119 deaths and 2,384 cases.

Kolhapur Division has notched 46 deaths and 1,813 patients, Latur Division had 35 deaths and 837 cases, and finally Nagpur Division recorded 15 deaths and 1,740 cases.

Interestingly, each of these three important divisions (Kolhapur, Latur and Nagpur) had no fresh deaths on Thursday, though there was a spurt in positive cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine decreased to 556,428, while those in institutional quarantine increased to 33,952.

( With inputs from IANS )