Maharashtra recorded the sharpest rise in the COVID-19 mortality on Tuesday with 97 deaths pushing the toll to 1,792. The State also recorded 2,091 cases taking the tally to 54,758.
While the highest — 39 deaths — were reported from Mumbai, which remains the epicentre of the outbreak, 15 deaths were reported from Thane, 10 from the Kalyan Dombivali region, five from Mira Bhayandar and three from Ulhasnagar. Pune recorded eight deaths, Solapur seven, Aurangabad five, Malegaon recorded three and Nagpur and Ratnagiri recorded one each.
Health officials clarified that 35 of the 97 deaths had occurred over the last two days while the rest were reported from April 17 to May 23. Officials said of the 63 of them were men and 34 women. Nearly 67% of the patients had co-morbid conditions like diabetes, hypertension, asthma, heart disease etc.
While the officials deliberate on lifting the lockdown in a calibrated manner post May 31, they are also anticipating a surge in cases as that happens. Mumbai and the rest of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region continue to be the hotspots.
Nearly 60% of the cases and 59% of the deaths were contributed by Mumbai alone with 29 people losing their lives everyday. Mumbai’s civic commissioner IS Chahal said, “Numbers should not become a cause of worry.” He said the city’s case fatality rate has improved from 7.6% in the beginning to 3.2%. “We are trying to bring it down to 3%, which is the national average,” he said.
The State has carried out nearly 3.90 lakh tests so far. Mumbai’s average testing rate is 13,000 per million population. On Tuesday, 1,168 people recovered and went home from hospitals across the State and 16,954 patients have recovered to date. While 5.67 lakh people remain under home quarantine, 35,200 are in institutional quarantine.
