At least 16 more COVID-19 positive cases were reported from Maharashtra on April 10, as the cumulative tally climbed to 1,380.
Pune recorded nine fresh cases over a 12-hour span, said officials. With this, Pune’s tally has gone up to 218, with a total of 25 deaths reported from the district.
Four more cases were reported from Akola, taking the district’s tally to 13, while two more were reported Buldhana district, taking its tally to 17, and one positive case was reported from Ratnagiri district.
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Akola and Buldhana are fast emerging as the virus hotspots in the Vidarbha and Amravati divisions respectively.
As many as 97 deaths have been reported from the State so far, with 54 of those being from Mumbai.
On April 9, the State recorded a new high of more than 25 deaths and 200 cases over a 24-hour span.
The bulk of the 229 new cases recorded on April 9 were from Mumbai, which reported more than 160 cases as health authorities struggled to rein in the spread of the contagion in the Maximum City, whose tally has touched 876 cases.
With 14 deaths being reported from Pune since April 8 and the total number of cases exceeding 200, the city’s Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) at Gultekdi has decided to remain shut indefinitely till further notice from April 10.
APMC yards have also been shut in Malegaon following the rise in COVID-19 positive cases there.
While Mumbai’s civic body was the first to make the wearing of face masks mandatory, the Pune, Nagpur and Sangli administrations have followed suit as well.
Seven booked
On the evening of April 9, the Pimpri-Chinchwad police registered FIRs against seven persons who were found moving about without masks.
Meanwhile, after a vegetable vendor, who tested positive for coronavirus, died in Baramati (in rural Pune) and six positive cases were reported from the area, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who is also Pune’s Guardian Minister, has ordered the city to be sealed off completely in order to rein in the spread of the contagion.
Nearly 50% of the country’s deaths due to the new coronavirus have occurred in Maharashtra, while the highest number of positive cases in India — more than 20% — have been reported from the State.
