Maharashtra Covid-19 cases soar; deaths surpass 31K

Mumbai, Sep 17 (IANS) Six months after the first death in Maharashtra, Covid-19 deaths and new cases continued to soar on Thursday with fatalities crossing the 31,000 mark, health officials said here.

The state recorded 24,619 cases – lower than the highest tally of 24,886 (September 11) – and the total zoomed from 11,21,221 to 11,45,840 cases now.

Adding a staggering 468 more fatalities, including 70 old deaths reconciled now – although lower than the peak of 515 (September 15) – the state death toll increased from 30,883 to 31,351 now.

There was one death roughly every 3 minutes and a whopping 1,026 new cases added every hour to the state tally.

The state recovery rate improved for the third consecutive day – from 70.71 per cent to 70.90 per cent – while the current mortality (death) rate stood at 2.74 per cent on Thursday.

Against this, a record 19,522 fully recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients from 792,832 to 812,354 till date – much higher than the 301,752 ‘active cases’ (ill) currently in the state.

Of the 468 deaths (including 70 old fatalities), Pune again led the state with 53 fatalities, besides 43 each in Mumbai and Sangli, 37 in Nagpur, 27 in Thane, 25 in Jalgaon, 21 in Kolhapur, 18 in Satara, 17 in Ahmednagar, 15 in Palghar, 14 in Nashik, 11 in Nanded, 10 in Solapur — in the higher bracket.

There were 9 fatalities in Beed, 8 in Aurangabad, 7 each in Raigad, Latur and Osmanabad, 6 in Parbhani, 3 in Amravati, 2 each in Dhule, Ratnagiri, Yavatmal, Buldhana and Bhandara, 1 each in Nandurbar, Sindhudurg, Jalna, Wardha and Gondia besides 2 from other states or foreigners – in the lower bracket.

The day witnessed sharp spurts in fatalities from Sangli, Nagpur, Jalgaon, Kolhapur, Satara, Ahmednagar and Palghar, even as 6 districts in the state recorded no-deaths.

Arrested in the sub-50 range for the past 37 days, Mumbai recorded 43 deaths – and the toll increased from 8,280 to to 8,323, while the number of corona cases shot up by 2,411 to jump from 175,974 to 178,385 now.

Of the total 8 circles, the situation in Mumbai circle (MMR – comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) remains alarming as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with the fatalities shooting up by 92 — from 14,378 a day earlier to 14,470 and with another spike of 5,956 new infectees, the total cases shot up from 414,377 the previous day to 420,333 now.

Pune district Covid cases touched 249,513 till date with the fatalities increasing from 4,936 a day earlier to 5,059 now.

Thane district on the third spot (after Pune and Mumbai) witnessed 164,957 cases and the death toll increased from 4,390 the previous day to 4,417 now.

With another 81 fatalities, the Pune circle’s (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll increased from 6,581 to 6,732 and the daily case tally zoomed up by another high of 6,353 – from 300,330 a day earlier to 306,683 cases now.

Nashik circle recorded 3112 fatalities and 148,842 cases, followed by Kolhapur circle’s 2,185 deaths and 73,646 cases, and Nagpur circle recorded 1,713 deaths and 76,288 cases.

Latur circle recorded 1,199 deaths and 43,922 cases, Aurangabad circle had 1,151 fatalities and 44,244 cases, followed by Akola circle with 679 deaths and 30,701 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine for Corona again jumped – from 17,53,347 to 17,70,748 now – while the number of those in institutional quarantine went up from 36,462 to 36,827 on Thursday.

–IANS

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