The state of Maharashtra reported an all-time high with 10,576 coronavirus cases in a single day on Wednesday. It is the first time the state has crossed the 10,000 figure in 24 hours; the previous highest count was on July 19, Saturday with 9,518 cases. The biggest contributor to Wednesday’s tally was Pune with 3,218 cases and 62 deaths. While Mumbai being worst hotspots in the country and accounting over 70 per cent of the daily cases in Maharashtra, it surprisingly accounted for approximately 12 per cent of the state’s case on Wednesday.
With the increase in cases on Wednesday, Maharashtra’s total stands at 3, 37,607, while Mumbai’s tally increased by 1,130 new cases to 1,04,678. While the active cases in Maharashtra are 1, 36,980, the city records 23,393 cases currently. Pune’s active patients in municipal limits have increased to 16,269 on Wednesday.
The death toll in Maharashtra was recorded as the second-highest count for a day with 280 deaths, with the highest toll being 295 on July 4, taking the total death toll of the state to 12,556. On Wednesday, Mumbai accounted for 21 per cent of the state’s death rate with 58 fatalities increasing the total death toll to 5,875. Before Wednesday’s death toll record, Pune’s highest death count for a single day was 61, that was recorded on July 19. The PMC reported that out of the 3,218 cases on Wednesday, 1,625 were in Pune municipal limits, 1,189 in Pimpri- Chinchwad municipal limits and 404 were in rural and cantonment together.
Mumbai Metropolitan Region wasn’t far behind as it reported 2,447 cases and 59 fatalities. The NMMC segment reported 303 fresh cases and six deaths, taking the total number of cases there to 12,269 and death toll to 358. Panvel reported 148 cases with six deaths, while Kalyan-Dombivili reported 427 new cases.
5,552 patients were discharged on Wednesday after recovery in Maharashtra, as the state stands at a 55.62 per cent of recovery rate. While in Mumbai 1,563 patients were discharged after recovery, with the doubling rate standing at 59 days.
“We plan to increase the numbers of tests done in Mumbai,” said AMC Suresh Kakani to TOI. The city is now conducting 6,000 tests on an average compared to 4,000 until last month. “By the weekend we plan to increase it to 8,000 and the plan is to reach 12,000 tests a day shortly,” Kakani added.
The state would soon increase the number of tests, and test aggressively, said Public health minister Rajesh Tope. Agreeing that lack of the critical care beds in Pune and MMR is a problem, Tope said the state has asked corporations and hospitals to make sure that these beds aren’t occupied by asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients.
The 10-day lockdown in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad would come to an end today, while other hotspots in the state would remain in lockdown until July 31.
