Maharashtra reported another bout of robust recoveries on Monday, with 61,607 patients being discharged as opposed to a comparatively low surge of 37,236 new COVID-19 cases with the State’s active case tally dipping significantly to 5,90,818.
As many as 549 deaths — 302 of which occurred in the last 48 hours — pushed the death toll to 76,398. As per the State Health Department, 113 of these fatalities occurred in the last week and the remaining 134 were from an earlier period.
However, the low case spike has to be viewed in the context of a decline in testing, with less than 2 lakh tests in the last 24 hours against the daily average of 2.70 lakh tests.
Nevertheless, the steady plateauing of cases and the daily dip in the case surge, which apparently reflected the effectiveness of lockdown-like restrictions, was likely to lead the Maharashtra government to extend them till May 31, sources said.
Maharashtra’s total cases have reached 51,38,973 while its cumulative recoveries have risen to 44,69,425 with the recovery rate going up to 86.97%.
“Of a total 2,96,31,127 laboratory samples tested thus far, 51,38,973 (with the average case positivity rising incrementally to 17.34%) have returned positive with 1.93 lakh samples being tested in the last 24 hours,” State Surveillance Officer Dr. Pradeep Awate said, adding that the State’s case fatality rate had incrementally declined to 1.49%.
Pune district reported over 4,500 new cases to take its total case tally to 9,30,809. As per the State Health Department figures, 10 deaths were reported as the fatality count climbed to 10,059. According to district authorities, the active case tally has dipped to 96,500 while the death toll has crossed 14,500.
Mumbai recorded 1,782 new cases to take its total tally to 6,77,412 while the active count has declined to 47,054. As many as 74 fatalities took the city’s death toll to 13,855.
Nagpur district in Vidarbha added more than 2,500 cases as its total cases touched 4,66,959 of whom 56,458 are active. Twenty-five deaths pushed the toll to 5,649.
Solapur registered 22 deaths and more than 1,300 cases as its fatality toll rose to 2,997 and the total cases reached 1,28,394 of whom 23,028 are active.
Ahmednagar logged 28 deaths and nearly 3,900 cases taking its death count to 2,287 and its total case tally to 2,02,816 of whom 24,452 are active.
Latur in Marathwada reported more than 550 new cases but a spike of 51 deaths, taking its total tally to 81,782 of whom 12,085 are active while its death toll has risen to 1,364.
Nashik in north Maharashtra added more than 2,000 new cases, taking its total case tally to 3,53,279 of whom 34,755 are active while just one death pushed its fatality toll to 3,716. The district administration has decided to impose a 10-day lockdown beginning on Tuesday in a bid to break the virus chain.
