The health authorities in Maharashtra went into a tizzy on Saturday, as the daily Covid-19 cases jumped to an alarming 20,489 on Saturday, even as 312 more people succumbed to the pandemic in various parts of the state.
With the fresh infections, the total number of positive cases in the case went up from 863,062 to 883,862. With 312 fresh deaths reported on Saturday, the total number deaths rose from 25,964 to 26,276.
Of the total deaths, Pune accounted for the highest 44 deaths, while there were 33 deaths in Mumbai, 31 in Nagpur, 22 in Thane, 18 in Kolhapur, 16 each in Nashik, Ahmednagar and Nanded, 13 in Satara, 11 in Sangli.Similarly, in the lower range, there were 9 deaths each in Raigad and Aurangabad, 8 in Solapur, 7 each in Jalgaon, Latur and Yavatmal, 6 in Osmanabad, 5 in Dhule, 4 each in Palghar, Beed, Wardha, Bhandara and Chandrapur, 3 each in Jalna, Parbhani and Akola, 2 each in Ratnagiri and Buldhana and one death in Nandurbar. In addition, two persons from other states or abroad died in Magharashtra.
In a couple of significant features, a sharp spike in fatalities was reported from Nagpur, Kolhapur, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Nanded and Satara, while there were zero deaths in five districts of the state. With 33 fresh deaths, Mumbai’s Covid-19 increased from 7,799 to 7,832, while the infected cases rose by a staggering 1,737 – to touch 153,712.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope directed the private hospitals in the state to first audit patients’ bills before giving them to their family members for payment.
This, he said, would come in handy in resolving complaints received from Covid-19 patients that some of the private sector hospitals were fleecing them.
Pune district with 1,94,559 infected cases continued to be the worst-affected city-district in Maharashtra. The number of deaths in Pune increased from 4333 to 4377.
Thane district remained on the third spot --after Pune and Mumbai – with 1,40,991 total cases, while the pandemic toll rose from 3913 to 3935.
In a related development, as many as 10,801 patients were discharged from hospitals in the state after full recovery. As a result, the total number of patients discharged from various hospitals after full recovery since the second week of March this year, touched 6,36,574. The recovery rate stood at 72.01 per cent. The mortality rate in the state is 2.97 per cent. The state health authorities pegged the number of “active cases” in the state at 2,20,661.
Out of 45,56,707 samples sent to laboratories, 8,83,862 have tested positive (19.3 per cent) for COVID-19 until Saturday.
Currently, 14,81,909 people are in home quarantine while 37,196 people are in institutional quarantine.