Maha’s Covid-19 death toll 8, positive cases cross 200

Mumbai, March 29 (IANS) A 45-year old man with no known history of foreign travel has died in Maharashtra’s Buldhana due to Covid’s-19, raising the state fatality numbers to eight, while the number of infected breached the 200 mark to touch 203 on Sunday, officials said.

“The patient, who suffered from diabetes, was admitted to a private hospital late on Thursday and then shifted to the district civil hospital on Saturday morning. He succumbed in barely two hours,” Buldhana Collector Suman Chandra told IANS.

Since he died due to respiratory issues, the district authorities had sent the deceased’s samples for testing and he turned out to be Covid-19 positive, according to the test reports received on Sunday.

“In view of this, we have activated all relevant protocols and measures to check out his contacts and collect other details pertaining to his medical history,” she added.

Earlier on Sunday, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai announced the state’s seventh death – of a 40-year woman with a medical history of hypertension and severe respiratory complaints since past 3-4 days.

Belonging to an economically weaker section, she succumbed late on Saturday night due to breathlessness and chest pains, and her Covid-19 report came positive on Sunday.

So far, all the Covid-19 deaths, save one, are from Mumbai, including the latest woman victim who becomes the youngest among all the victims who were in their 60s and above.

The Health Department announced that the number of positive cases overshot the 200-mark to touch 203 with maximum number of cases from Mumbai and Pune regions.

Among the positive cases under treatment till date, the condition of at least five has been described as “critical”.

The current breakdown is: Mumbai 85, Pune 37, Sangli 25, Thane 23, Nagpur 14, Ahmednagar five, Yavatmal four, Satara two, and one each in Ratnagiri, Aurangabad, Sindhudurg, Kolhapur, Gondiya, Buldhana and Jalgaon, besides one from Gujarat.

Against these, 34 patients who have fully recovered have been discharged in the state so far, including 14 in Mumbai, 15 in Pune, three in Yavatmal, one each in Nagpur and Aurangabad, Health Minister Rajesh Tope said.

As many as 17,151 persons are in home quarantine across the state and 960 in institutional quarantine.

All government hospitals in cities and districts are fully geared to handle the coronavirus crisis and isolation wards have been set up in all medical colleges in the state.

–IANS

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