Maharashtra touches new record of Covid-19 deaths, patients

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Maharashtra on Wednesday reported a new high of 54 Covid-19 deaths, while Mumbai accounted for a record 40 fatalities and the number of positive cases across the state achieved a new single-day spike of 1,495, health officials said here.

With 54 fatalities - up from Tuesday's 53 - the state's death toll shot up to 975 and the total number of coronavirus patients increased to 25,922, with the highest jump seen after the 1,278 nw cases on May 10.

Of the total deaths, a staggering 40 - the highest till date - were recorded in Mumbai alone, taking the city's toll to 596 and the number of Covid-19 patients in the city shot up by a new high of 800 to touch 15,747.

Mumbai's Dharavi slum alone continued to be a major hotspot and a headache for the health authorities, notching 66 new cases, taking the total number of patients to 1,028, and 40 deaths till now.

Besides Mumbai, there were six deaths in Pune, two each in Jalgaon, Solapur, and Aurangabad, plus one each in Palghar and Ratnagiri.

They comprised 33 men and 21 women, and nearly 67 percent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma.

On the positive side, 422 more fully cured patients returned home, taking the number of those discharged to 5,547 till date.

Mumbai recorded its 5th and the state its 8th policeman victim when 57-year-old policeman of Navi Mumbai, working with Sewri Police Station here, succumbed to Covid-19. Another 1,000-plus policemen have tested positive and several thousands more are in quarantine around the state.

With the continuous daily spike in Covid-19 cases and deaths in Mumbai and the upcoming Ramzan and Eid, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh sought an additional 20 companies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), which can reduce the burden of the state police.

In an attempt to kickstart the paralysed industrial sector, Industry Minister Subhash Desai on Wednesday said the state has permitted 65,000 industries to resume operations of which 35,000 have already started with around 900,000 employees.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (Thane Division) continued to cause huge concerns with 644 Covid-19 deaths and 19,446 patients, with Thane district notching 25 deaths, Palghar 13 and Ratnagiri 10 fatalities so far.

Pune Division trails a distant second with 193 fatalities and 3,606 patients.

The next major area of concern is Nashik Division with 71 deaths and 1,114 positive cases, followed by Akola Division with 26 deaths and 408 cases, and finally Aurangabad with 18 fatalities and 759 patients.

Kolhapur Division has reported five deaths and 130 patients, Latur Division five fatalities and 94 cases, and finally Nagpur Division with 3 deaths and 324 patients.

Meanwhile, the number of people shunted in home quarantine increased from 281,655 to 298,213, and those in institutional quarantine dropped by 1,000 to 14,627, while the state's containment zones increased from 1,289 to 1,439 on Wednesday.

As many as 13,803 teams have carried out a survey of a population of around 57.6 lakhs in the state till date.

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