Maharashtra reported a spike of 12,712 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the State’s total case tally to 5,48,313. A high fatality surge of 344 took the death toll to 18,650.
However, the increase in number of cases — the State’s second-highest single-day spike so far — was offset by the highest number of recoveries in a day, with 13,408 patients being discharged in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative recoveries to 3,81,483.
The State accounts for nearly 20% of the country’s total cases. This is the third time in less than five days that it has recorded a single-day jump of over 12,000 cases, with the highest spike of 12,822 cases being recorded on August 8.
The State’s active case tally currently stands at 1,47,513 with the recovery rate rising to 69.74%, said State Health Department officials.
“Till date, of 29,08,887 laboratory samples, 5,48,313 (18.84%) have tested positive, with nearly 71,000 samples being tested across the State in the last 24 hours,” said State Surveillance Officer Dr. Pradeep Awate, adding that the State’s case fatality rate stood at 3.4%.
Surge in Pune
As per State health department figures, Pune district reported another surge of nearly 3,000 new cases and 41 deaths, taking its total case tally to 1,19,628 while its death toll reached 2,865. The district administration, however, said the number of active cases had come down to less than 26,000 with the district’s recovery rate rising above 75%.
Mumbai city reported 1,132 new cases as its total case tally reached 1,26,356 of whom only 19,047 are active. With 50 new deaths reported on Wednesday, the death toll has risen to 6,943.
After Mumbai and Pune, Nashik in north Maharashtra reported a sharp surge of 28 fatalities, taking its total death toll to 616. The district also witnessed a record-high surge of 1,138 fresh cases taking its total tally to 22,577, of which 7,621 are active cases.
Neighbouring Jalgaon, another major virus hotspot in the region, reported 16 deaths, taking the toll to 639. With a surge of 416 cases, the total case tally rose to 15,780 of which 4,422 are active cases.
Kolhapur in western Maharashtra reported 19 deaths, taking its death toll to 276. the district reported a massive surge of 634 fresh cases, taking its total case tally to 11,176 of whom 5,611 are active.
In the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the Kalyan-Dombivli civic body reported 15 deaths, taking its cumulative death toll to 554. With 386 fresh cases, its total case tally has risen to 26,046. Mira-Bhayander reported 11 deaths, taking its death toll to 347 while 145 new cases took its tally to 10,399.
Latur in the Marathwada reported an alarming fatality spike of 16 deaths as its total death toll rose to 169. With 243 new cases, the district’s total case tally has reached 4,407 of whom 2,345 are active.
Dr. Awate said 10,15,115 persons across the State were in home quarantine and 35,880 were in institutional quarantine facilities.
