Maharashtra recorded 187 new cases and 17 more fatalties from COVID-19 on Saturday, taking the total count to 1,761 cases and 127 deaths. Nearly 65% of the cases and 60% of the deaths have been reported from Mumbai.
State health officials said that of the Saturday’s deaths, 12 were reported from Mumbai, two from Pune, and one each from Satara, Dhule and Malegaon.
“Six of the deceased were above 60 years, eight were in the age group of 40-60 years and three were below 40 years,” said a State health official, adding that 16 out of these 17 patients had co-morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma and heart disease.
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Maharashtra has conducted nearly 36,771 tests so far of which 34,094 have returned negative. The State currently had 38,800 people under home quarantine and 4,964 people are in institutional quarantine. So far, 208 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.
Maharashtra’s case-fatality rate rose to 7.2%, among the highest nationwide. Punjab’s fatality rate stood at 8.3%, while in Madhya Pradesh it was 7.5%. However the number of cases and deaths recorded in these States were lower than in Maharashtra.
Dr Anup Yadav, head of Directorate of Health Services in Maharashtra said that the numbers of tests carried out in the State were much higher, resulting in more positive cases being detected.
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“As far as the deaths are concerned, co-morbid conditions and age-related factors are the main reasons. We are in process of carrying out detailed death audits to know the exact causes,” said Dr. Yadav, adding that another worrisome trend is that many patients are landing at the isolation facilities in the very last hour and are succumbing before the doctors can do anything to save them. The death audit will tell us if the virus is manifesting rapidly in some cases,” he said.