The number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra surged to 14,541 on Monday, with a record 1,567 cases added to the tally by the State Health Department, which said this was a result of clearing a backlog of cases over the past week.
The State's death toll rose to 583 with 35 more deaths recorded on Monday.
Although the number of new cases was 771 as per the State Health Department, the tally went up by 1,567 from Sunday’s 12,974. This was because authorities adjusted the number of cases which are not from Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Palghar districts as per Central government guidelines and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) directives.
“There is no cause for confusion. The increase is much more than 771. The reason for that being that we have updated community figures of all districts expect Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad as per the ICMR lists which are available on the COVID-19 portal and every lab is uploading it. We have updated it. The cumulative figures include last week’s figures as well and hence the increase appears to be much more,” said State Surveillance Officer Dr. Pradeep Awate.
Deaths in Mumbai, Pune
As per the State Health Department, Mumbai reported 18 fatalities, while the death of an Uttar Pradesh resident was also recorded in the city. Seven deaths were reported from Pune city, while Akola, a virus hotspot in Amravati division, reported five deaths. One death each was reported from Thane, Solapur, Aurangabad and Nanded districts.
Other parts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region reported a spike in fresh COVID-19 cases as well, with Thane district reporting a rise of 30 cases as its tally went up to 578, while Kalyan-Dombivli reported 16 new cases,taking its tally to 228.
Pune district reported a surge of 60 cases as its tally of active cases reached 1,454. As per the Health Department, the district’s death toll stands at 113, though the district administration put the figure at 115.
Malegaon in Nashik district reported a staggering 101 new cases as per the State figures, as Nashik’s tally surged to 382 active cases, of which 330 are from Malegaon.
350 discharged
On the positive side, 350 people were discharged on Monday, taking the number of discharged patients till date to 2,465, said Dr. Awate. “Almost 70% of the deaths reported today had high-risk co-morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma and heart disease,” he said.
Till date, 1,76,323 samples have been tested in Maharashtra of which 1,62,349 (nearly 92%) have returned negative.
“There are 1,026 active containment zones in the State currently. At present, 1,98,042 people across the State are in home quarantine and 13,006 are in institutional quarantine facilities,” said Dr. Awate.
